La politique du dehors avec les raisons du - European University ...

minimal on foreign policy or the fight against terrorism.” 59 Among reasons cited
are that only about three of five Muslims in France are voting citizens. The
issues they are interested in are employment, the economy, education, and
discrimination.
The Muslim fact in France, then, has at most an impact on the margins
of foreign policy. Laurence and Vaisse hypothesized that “The historical record
of French policy in the Arab world since Charles de Gaulle suggests that
France’s position on international affairs would not look much different even if
there were no Muslim minority in France.” 60 We can add that it would not be
much different if there were no politically influential Islamophobes in the
country. To be sure, “While there is no evidence of the Muslim minority’s direct
influence on French foreign policy, the presence of five million Muslims does
have an indirect impact on diplomacy with respect to the Middle East. But it
seems mostly to confirm France’s preexisting policies toward this region.” 61
On the big issues, French Muslims and the French population at large
have usually been in agreement. More than 70 per cent of both groups said
that they worried about Islamism and that they believed there is no “conflict
between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society.” The two
populations also expressed mutual respect: in 2004 close to two-thirds of all
French people thought favorably of Muslims—the highest such proportion of
any of the western countries polled. Reciprocally, more Muslims had favorable
views of Christians and Jews (91 per cent and 71 per cent, respectively) in
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