The French president is now caught between Le Pen and Le Monde
In France it has become difficult to have a rational debate about anything to do with Islam or Islamism. The opposing sides accuse one another of hysteria. Often, not always, they have a point. But in recent days, France — chattering, media-political France at any rate — has exploded into a blazing quarrel about a hyphenated word: Islamo-gauchisme or “Islamo-leftism”. What is it? Does it really exist? Is it, as some people say, a threat to the French way of life?
The term was invented 19 years ago by a French academic to describe an alliance between radical Islam and the extreme Left. The word has since been hijacked by the French Right – both the far right and more traditional conservatives — to mock attempts to combat racism or discrimination against France’s 5,000,000 Muslims.
