Members of the French Socialist Party have revolted against use of the word “Islamophobia” in its formal documents because, they said, it “validates the theses of an identitarian [right-wing] and communitarian Left”.
In a column published on July 6 in the French magazine Mariane, a group of senior members argued the term had become “politicised”, “distorts” the fight against anti-racism and “weakens secularism”.
“The word ‘Islamophobia’ is ambiguous, politicised and often misused to call into question the very foundations of our republican pact,” they said.
The members said they believed “Islamophobia” was too tightly focused on religion and could be used for political gain in the sense that it may attract the Muslim vote.
“Speaking of anti-Muslim racism, anti-Muslim hatred or Muslimophobia is more appropriate to guarantee the effectiveness of the anti-racist fight we wage,” they argued.
“We do not accept that criticism of a religion should be equated with racism, nor that fundamental principles such as secularism, freedom of expression and the right to blasphemy should be caricatured or presented as ‘Islamophobic’. It was in the name of this accusation that the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were massacred,” they added.
That was in relation to the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which became the target of a terrorist attack in January 2015 after publishing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
In 2020, Charlie Hebdo’s lawyer, Richard Malka, reinforced this stance by publishing a book titled The Right to Piss Off God.
The Socialist Party members demanded that the use of the word Islamophobia be debated within the Socialist Party.
“We do not accept that criticism of a religion should be equated with racism,” they said.
In popular belief, France upheld what was often referred to as the “right to blasphemy”, the idea that individuals can openly criticise any religion without fear of legal or social consequences.
While this principle was not explicitly written into French law, it was widely seen as an unwritten societal norm.
Legally speaking, the concept of blasphemy was removed from French law in 1881 with the passage of major legislation protecting freedom of expression.
French legislation guaranteed anyone the right to criticise dogma, or religion. It also formally protected believers against “insult, defamation and incitement to hatred, violence or discrimination on the grounds of belonging or not belonging to a race, ethnic group, nation or religion”.
In short, in France, insults to religion can be tolerated but not insults to believers.
Among the signatories of the column was the Mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, who sought to win over the leadership of the Socialist party in the latest elections, and Jérôme Guedj, a prominent figure within the party and fierce opponent of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and France’s more radical left-wing parties such as La France Insoumise (LFI).
In France, LFI was one of the first Left-leaning parties to speak of “Islamophobia”. In 2019, the party leader participated in a march against Islamophobia.
In an interview on July 4, Guedj stated that the Socialist Party was under the influence of Mélenchon.
“There is a Mélenchonian hold on the PS [Socialist Party] leadership,” he said.
The signatories vowed to fight all forms of racism in the country.
France has faced issues over racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, which were recently brought into the spotlight by the killing of Aboubakar Cissé inside a Mosque in April 2025.
France’s moderate Left has distanced itself from radical firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon as it lays the groundwork for a unified front in the 2027 presidential election. https://t.co/bahxm1JKjl
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) July 3, 2025
