The French minister for higher education has sparked a backlash from university heads after warning about the spread of “Islamo-leftism” in the country’s academic institutions, reports The Times of Israel.
The term “Islamo-leftism” is often used in France by far-right politicians to discredit left-wing opponents they accuse of being blind to the dangers of Islamist extremism and overly worried about racism and identity.
“I think that Islamo-leftism is eating away at our society as a whole, and universities are not immune and are part of our society,” Minister for Higher Education Frédérique Vidal told CNews television on Sunday.
The comments came amid a divisive debate in France about what President Emmanuel Macron has termed “Islamist separatism,” in which Islamists are said to be flouting French laws in closed-off Muslim communities and fueling terror attacks on French soil.
The lower house of parliament approved a tough draft law on Tuesday that will extend the state’s powers to shut down religious groups judged to be extremist.
Macron has recently been accused by critics of pandering to the far right ahead of presidential elections next year, which polls show are likely to be a re-run of his 2017 duel with Marine Le Pen, leader of the anti-immigration National Rally.
Interior minister Gérald Darmanin caused unease inside the governing centrist party last Thursday after accusing Le Pen of “softness” on Islam during a televised debate.
In response to Vidal’s comments, the Conference of University Presidents (CPU) issued a statement on Tuesday expressing “its shock at another sterile controversy over the issue of ‘Islamo-leftism’ at university”.
Last October, education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer had also warned that “Islamo-leftism” was “wreaking havoc” in French academia.
The CPU group, which represents the heads of French universities, condemned the use of the ill-defined label which it said should be left to the far-right “which popularized it”.
Vidal also announced that she would order an investigation into the problem of researchers “looking at everything through the prism of wanting to fracture and divide,” which she said included those focused on colonialism and race.