God Bless France
3
13/04/15 22:48 God Bless France - NYTimes.com Page 1 of 3 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/10/opinion/roger-cohen-god-bless-france.html?_r=0 http://nyti.ms/1apmIL3 The Opinion Pages | OP-ED COLUMNIST God Bless France APRIL 9, 2015 Roger Cohen I recently visited an old friend, Micha Shagrir, a movie producer in Jerusalem. He was in a Jerusalem hospice; soon he would die of cancer. We talked about old times. It was a tender moment. Shagrir mused on projects he still dreamed of completing. His body had become the frail vessel of an unbowed spirit. In 1980, his wife, Aliza, was killed in the bombing of the synagogue on the Rue Copernic in Paris. The tumor in Shagrir’s brain was discovered last year when, 34 years after that attack, he was found wandering around Paris in a disoriented state. Jews know well that some traumas are never overcome. Shagrir, always on a quest for the next great movie, was in Paris on business. But the business of his life included unanswered Parisian questions: Why was Aliza there outside the synagogue? Why was she among the four people killed? Shortly after the attack, Raymond Barre, then the French prime minister, made a revealing comment. He described the attack as having “sought to target Jews who were in this synagogue and that struck innocent Frenchmen who were crossing Rue Copernic.” On the one hand “innocent Frenchmen,” on the other Jews, like Aliza, presumably not innocent because of the original sin of their Jewishness. Barre’s comment stuck in the throats of France’s Jewish community, numbering roughly 500,000. Thirty-five years have gone by and national identity remains an often fraught matter in Europe. Even the most open European society, Britain, is far
description
God Bless France
Transcript of God Bless France
13/04/15 22:48God Bless France - NYTimes.com
Page 1 of 3http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/10/opinion/roger-cohen-god-bless-france.html?_r=0
http://nyti.ms/1apmIL3
The Opinion Pages | OP-ED COLUMNIST
God Bless FranceAPRIL 9, 2015
Roger Cohen
I recently visited an old friend, Micha Shagrir, a movie producer in Jerusalem.He was in a Jerusalem hospice; soon he would die of cancer. We talked aboutold times. It was a tender moment. Shagrir mused on projects he still dreamedof completing. His body had become the frail vessel of an unbowed spirit.
In 1980, his wife, Aliza, was killed in the bombing of the synagogue on theRue Copernic in Paris. The tumor in Shagrir’s brain was discovered last yearwhen, 34 years after that attack, he was found wandering around Paris in adisoriented state. Jews know well that some traumas are never overcome.
Shagrir, always on a quest for the next great movie, was in Paris onbusiness. But the business of his life included unanswered Parisian questions:Why was Aliza there outside the synagogue? Why was she among the fourpeople killed?
Shortly after the attack, Raymond Barre, then the French prime minister,made a revealing comment. He described the attack as having “sought to targetJews who were in this synagogue and that struck innocent Frenchmen who werecrossing Rue Copernic.”
On the one hand “innocent Frenchmen,” on the other Jews, like Aliza,presumably not innocent because of the original sin of their Jewishness. Barre’scomment stuck in the throats of France’s Jewish community, numberingroughly 500,000.
Thirty-five years have gone by and national identity remains an oftenfraught matter in Europe. Even the most open European society, Britain, is far
13/04/15 22:48God Bless France - NYTimes.com
Page 2 of 3http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/10/opinion/roger-cohen-god-bless-france.html?_r=0
less open than the United States, a nation of immigrants generally moreinterested in what you can do than where you have come from. Intricacies ofancestry and blood in Europe make citizenship a more complex matter than inthe United States. As a French Muslim you may be a French citizen but are youreally French? Is a British Jewish citizen whose family has been in London for acouple of generations really English? Can a Swedish Kurd call himself a Swede?European citizenship is a contract that defines rules of belonging but may leaveforms of exclusion intact.
I heard of a French Jewish woman who, after the murderous Januaryattacks by fanatical Islamists in Paris, described what it was like to be Jewish inFrance, before declaring: “Mais mon mari, c’est un vrai Francais!” — “But myhusband is a real Frenchman!”
“Real,” here, equals non-Jewish, presumably Catholic.These are the subtle barriers of religion, ethnicity, race and prejudice that
belie the French doctrine of laïcité, or roughly secularism. In theory the ideabinds by subsuming differences through Frenchness. In theory France is alwaysas united as it appeared in January, when more than a million people marchedin Paris under the “Je Suis Charlie” banner.
United, that is, in standing up for the Revolution of 1789 that enshrined thehuman rights of all irrespective of creed; for the law of 1905 under the ThirdRepublic that separated church and state and banned the public funding ofreligion; for its Fifth Republic Constitution of 1958 that confirms thatseparation; in short for the blessed laïcité expressed in the words, “The Republicneither recognizes, nor salaries, nor subsidizes any religion.”
No French leader will ever say, “God bless France.” In France God is privateor not at all. Seen from the United States, where God is political and God iseverywhere — taking on Darwin, defending the fetus, backing the right to beararms — this may seem welcome.
In some ways it is. The French secular view of citizenship has often proveda pathway to integration as effective as the American model.
But of course secularism does not remove old prejudices. It can become itsown religion, less doctrine than diktat. It can be a means of exclusion ratherthan inclusion. From defining the state by its secularism to insisting that everycitizen is secular may prove a short step — and an affront to France’s 5 millionMuslims, the country’s most regular and ardent worshipers.
13/04/15 22:48God Bless France - NYTimes.com
Page 3 of 3http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/10/opinion/roger-cohen-god-bless-france.html?_r=0
No wonder the Muslim community of France sees laïcité aimed principallyat it. Why wouldn’t they? France has been largely de-Christianized, even if moststate holidays are Roman Catholic holy days. In practice, laïcité seems totranslate into laws banning Muslim head scarves, or laws banning the full-faceveil in public spaces, or debates about whether a mosque may have a minaret, orwhether pork should be served in school canteens. To the consternation ofmainstream parties, the far-right National Front has found an effective badge insecularism.
France, home to one of Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities,needs a broad debate on such issues, as does Europe as a whole. It isunacceptable that some French Muslim school kids refused to observe anational minute of silence after the Charlie Hebdo murders. Europe, on somefronts, is in a fierce battle of values with Islam. But ramming laïcité downMuslims’ throats is not the answer.
© 2015 The New York Times Company
