An Impossible Anti-Secular Alliance: Orthodox Jews and Muslims in France

This paper is related to governance practices that are met with resistance and contestation in France. It shows how laïcité used as a governing tool has an impact on orthodox Jews and Muslim minorities without them agreeing on any alliance. From the prohibition for people working in the civil service to wear religious signs to exams on holy days and debates on banning circumcision or ritual slaughtering, orthodox Jews and Muslims may feel specifically targeted by some policy measures. Two points deserve specific attention. First, the main reason put forward by the administration is the notion of laïcité, which is not just a philosophical concept nor a principle to organize the relation between religions and the State. Indeed, it has evolved into a rhetoric tool at hand for the administration, which uses it to skip any claim about those issues. Why and how has this notion evolved this way? Second, if the two of these groups are to a certain extent affected the same way and can originate it from the very notion of laïcité, it is quite striking that instead of setting a common platform up, they don’t ally in. Why is it so? What does any inter-faith solidarity come up? This presentation is based on an ongoing project. It encompasses around 80 semi-structured interviews with orthodox Jews in France, as well as participant and non-ethnological observations during classes and events of communities, and the analysis of French orthodox newspapers and websites.