A group of 100 French intellectuals has just published in the newspaper Le Figaro (March 19, 2018), its denunciation of Islamic totalitarianism. Among the signatories are some of the most distinguished historians, philosophers, professors, jurists, and journalists, in France, known to all, and representing political leanings from Left to Right. Among them are some ex-Muslims. Not a group easy to dismiss.

The following is a translation of their statement made by Leslie Shaw, a contributor to the Clarion Project:

We are citizens of differing and often diametrically opposed views, who have found agreement in expressing our concern in the face of the rise of Islamism. We are united not by our affinities, but by the feeling of danger that threatens freedom in general and not just freedom of thought.

That which unites us today is more fundamental than that which will undoubtedly separate us tomorrow.

Islamist totalitarianism seeks to gain ground by every means possible and to represent itself as a victim of intolerance. This strategy was demonstrated some weeks ago when the SUD Education 93 teachers union proposed a training course that included workshops on state racism from which white people were barred.

Several of the facilitators were members or sympathizers of the CCIF (French Collective Against Islamophobia) or the Natives of the Republic party. Such examples have proliferated recently. We have thus learned that the best way to combat racism is to separate races. If this idea shocks us, it is because we are Republicans.

We also hear it said that because religions in France are trampled on by an institutionalized secularism, everything that is in a minority — in other words Islam — must be accorded a special place so that it can cease to be humiliated.

This same argument continues by asserting that in covering themselves with a hijab, women are protecting themselves from men and that keeping themselves apart is a means to emancipation.

What these proclamations have in common is the idea that the only way to defend the “dominated” (the term is that of SUD Education 93) is to set them apart and grant them privileges.

Not so long ago, apartheid reigned in South Africa. Based on the segregation of blacks, it sought to exonerate itself by creating bantustans (territories set aside for black South Africans) where blacks were granted false autonomy. Fortunately this system no longer exists.

Today, a new kind of apartheid is emerging in France, a segregation in reverse thanks to which the “dominated” seek to retain their dignity by sheltering themselves from the “dominators.”

But does this mean that a woman who casts off her hijab and goes out into the street becomes a potential victim? Does it mean that a “race” that mixes with others becomes humiliated? Does it mean that a religion that accepts being one among other religions loses face?

Does Islamism also seek to segregate French Muslims, whether believers or otherwise, who accept democracy and are willing to live with others? Who will decide for women who refuse to be locked away? As for others, who seemingly do not deserve to be protected, will they be held under lock and key in the camp of the “dominators”?

All of this runs counter to what has been done in France to guarantee civil peace. For centuries, the unity of the nation has been grounded in a detachment with respect to particularities that can be a source of conflict. What is known as Republican universalism does not consist in denying the existence of gender, race or religion but in defining civic space independently of them so that nobody feels excluded. How can one not see that secularism protects minority religions?

Jeopardizing secularism exposes us to a return to the wars of religion.

What purpose can this new sectarianism serve? Must it only allow the self-styled “dominated” to safeguard their purity by living amongst themselves? Is not its overall objective to assert secession from national unity, laws and mores? Is it not the expression of a real hatred towards our country and democracy?

For people to live according to the laws of their community or caste, in contempt of the laws of others, for people to be judged only by their own, is contrary to the spirit of the Republic. The French Republic was founded on the refusal to accept that private rights can be applied to specific categories of the population and on the abolition of privilege.

On the contrary, the Republic guarantees that the same law applies to each one of us. This is simply called justice.

This new separatism is advancing under concealment. It seeks to appear benign but is in reality a weapon of political and cultural conquest in the service of Islamism.

Islamism wants to set itself apart because it rejects others, including those Muslims who do not subscribe to its tenets. Islamism abhors democratic sovereignty, to which it refuses any kind of legitimacy. Islamism feels humiliated when it is not in a position of dominance.

Accepting this is out of the question. We want to live in a world where both sexes can look at each other with neither feeling insulted by the presence of the other. We want to live in a world where women are not deemed to be naturally inferior. We want to live in a world where people can live side by side without fearing each other. We want to live in a world where no religion lays down the law.

Waleed al-Husseini, writer

Arnaud d’Aunay, painter

Pierre Avril, academic

Vida Azimi, jurist

Isabelle Barbéris, academic

Kenza Belliard, teacher

Georges Bensoussan, historian

Corinne Berron, author

Alain Besançon, historian

Fatiha Boudjahlat, essayist

Michel Bouleau, jurist

Rémi Brague, philosopher

Philippe Braunstein, historian

Stéphane Breton, film maker, ethnologist

Claire Brière-Blanchet, reporter, essayist

Marie-Laure Brossier, city councillor

Pascal Bruckner, writer

Eylem Can, script writer

Sylvie Catellin, semiologist

Gérard Chaliand, writer

Patrice Champion, former ministerial advisor

Brice Couturier, journalist

Éric Delbecque, essayist

Chantal Delsol, philosopher

Vincent Descombes, philosopher

David Duquesne, nurse

Luc Ferry, philosopher, former minister

Alain Finkielkraut, philosopher, writer

Patrice Franceschi, writer

Renée Fregosi, philosopher

Christian Frère, professor

Claudine Gamba-Gontard, professor

Jacques Gilbert, historian of ideas

Gilles-William Goldnadel, lawyer

Monique Gosselin-Noat, academic

Gabriel Gras, biologist

Gaël Gratet, professor

Patrice Gueniffey, historian

Alain Guéry, historian

Éric Guichard, philosopher

Claude Habib, writer, professor

Nathalie Heinich, sociologist

Clarisse Herrenschmidt, linguist

Philippe d’Iribarne, sociologist

Roland Jaccard, essayist

Jacques Jedwab, psychoanalyst

Catherine Kintzler, philosopher

Bernard Kouchner, doctor, humanitarian, former minister

Bernard de La Villardière, journalist

Françoise Laborde, journalist

Alexandra Laignel-Lavastine, essayist

Dominique Lanza, clinical psychologist

Philippe de Lara, philosopher

Josepha Laroche, academic

Alain Laurent, essayist, editor

Michel Le Bris, writer

Jean-Pierre Le Goff, philosopher

Damien Le Guay, philosopher

Anne-Marie Le Pourhiet, jurist

Barbara Lefebvre, teacher

Patrick Leroux-Hugon, physicist

Élisabeth Lévy, journalist

Laurent Loty, historian of ideas

Mohamed Louizi, engineer, essayist

Jérôme Maucourant, economist

Jean-Michel Meurice, painter, film director

Juliette Minces, sociologist

Marc Nacht, psychoanalyst, writer

Morgan Navarro, cartoonist

Pierre Nora, historian, editor

Robert Pépin, translator

Céline Pina, essayist

Yann Queffélec, writer

Jean Queyrat, film director

Philippe Raynaud, professor of political science

Robert Redeker, writer

Pierre Rigoulot, historian

Ivan Rioufol, journalist

Philippe San Marco, author, essayist

Boualem Sansal, writer

Jean-Marie Schaeffer, philosopher

Martine Segalen, ethnologist

André Senik, teacher

Patrick Sommier, man of the theater

Antoine Spire, vice-president of Licra

Wiktor Stoczkowski, anthropologist

Véronique Tacquin, professor, writer

Pierre-André Taguieff, political scientist

Maxime Tandonnet, author

Sylvain Tesson, writer

Paul Thibaud, essayist

Bruno Tinel, economist

Michèle Tribalat, demographer

Caroline Valentin, essayist

David Vallat, author

Éric Vanzieleghem, documentalist

Jeannine Verdès-Leroux, historian

Emmanuel de Waresquiel, historian

Ibn Warraq, writer

Yves-Charles Zarka, philosopher

Fawzia Zouari, writer