Economic Crisis and Social Issues - The use of Islam by French politicians

Economic Crisis and Social Issues - The use of Islam by French politicians

ALIMUKHAMEDOV, Farkhad

In our paper we aim to analyze how French parties use the rhetoric of social life problematiques during economic crisis and try to avoid direct responsability. Among the social problematiques we will focus on especially the issues relating to Islam as Muslims are among the most used rhetorics while economic crisis in Europe. According to the archives of Le Monde since the year 2000 the use of the term Islam is much higher than the use of the word Christianity and Judaism. The same applies to the use of the word Muslim which is higher than Christian or Jew. We find out the similar tendencies in Le Parisien, the journal which is mostly sold in France. Islam is mostly cited term among the religions which is unproportional to its presence in France. This shows that Islam overpasses purely religious aspects and includes more than other religions when it comes to its media visibility. French politicians use the different social problems in a critical situations. Islam is one of these easy scapegoats that is oftenly utilized by politicians in their difficulties. This shows that from one side Islam and Muslims are very weak in France which are unable to defend, but from the other part, it becomes a necessary tool for all parties to participate willingly or unwillingly on the debate related to Islam. Our work will be based on two steps: firstly, we focus on the main critical events related to Islam in France and analyze the positions of the main parties. Afterwards, we observe their approaches to Islam and compare their methods and outcomes. We believe that, economic difficulties could be resolved, but social impacts of the crisis may remain for the decades. Keywords: Economic Crisis, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Europe.

Article
PeerReviewed

ISSN 2303-4564

International Burch University

2013-05-10

1518