Naissance médiatique de l'intellectuel musulman en France (1989-2005)

B) The intellectual avant-gardist of the Moslem world

If the posture of the converted intellectual is rather old and tends to decline, we put forth the assumption now that well these last years ago birth of the figure of the intellectual avant-gardist of the Moslem world. The Rushdie business marks a true turning in the image in Occident which is made of the Moslem intellectual.

1) Construction of this media figure to the turning of the years 1990

Until the end of the years 1980, the portrait of the intellectual Moslem ground life drawn up by the Western media is overall caricatural. In order to be « adoubé » intellectual of the Moslem world, it is inevitably necessary to be, if not advances some, at least in shift compared to the preserving authorities. It is thus in general politically that certain figures reach the statute of intellectual for our Western media. These agitators are in general communist, therefore atheistic, or islamist. To be islamist and intellectual being incompatible for the majority of the Western thinkers, only were high with the row of intellectual of the personalities from which the grid of thought is not very distant from our intellectual traditions. It was thus for many the rationalist intellectuals, like the authors Algerian Marxists Kateb Yacine (1929-1989) or Mohammed Dib (1920-2003) for example. The media introduce artists, in particular writers, generally Arab, but almost never Moslem. To define the intellectual of the world arabo-Moslem, the identities of free-thinker and agitator then are presented like essential and are bound. More generally, the French press conveys the idea that the Moslem world is divided between people fanatic and believing, and an enlightened elite and not believing : it is possible to be intellectual in the Moslem world only if one is atheistic^36(*).

The death sentence of Salman Rushdie on February 14, 1989 by the ayatollah Khomeiny constitutes an unquestionable turning. If the purpose of this fatwa is, according to Gilles Kepel, of « to break the comparable intellectuals^37(*) », it allowed médiatiser a whole generation of Moslem intellectuals being asserted like such. A protesting proclamation « In the name of Islam (...), we all are of Salman Rushdie », is immediately signed by Moslem thinkers exiled in France, like the Algerian Mohammed Harbi, but also the Iranian Nasser Pakdaman, the Syrian Haytham Manna, the Turk Shunsuddin Guzel, the Egyptian Lotfallah Soliman^38(*). In the same way, of the Moslem personalities militate spontaneously within the French Committee of defense of Salman Rushdie.

Admittedly, the majority of the images which remain of this Rushdie business are those of Moslems expressing in block against the blasphématoire author. But reality was not so simple, as Emilie Rene underlines it, auteure of a study on the business :

« One of the important effects of the Rushdie business thus indeed was, as opposed to what supposes the argument culturalist, to make particularly visible the deep differences in points of view which exist, not as well between the cultures Western and Moslem woman as within the latter^39(*). »

If before 1989, the Lebanese poet Abbas Baydoun underlines, « intellectuals [had] given up with the only monks the care to treat all that relates to the religion and the history of Islam^40(*) », the Rushdie business constitutes a single opportunity for the these-last to reinvest the Islamic field, setting up for the first time a barrier with the intervention without limits of the oulémas^41(*), in particular in the artistic field. The standpoint concerning the Satanic Verses was thus the occasion for a certain number of thinkers often representing an Islam moderate and repressed to make hear their unmatched voice and to form an outline again standard of Moslem intelligentsia. In 1993, « hundred Arab and Moslem intellectuals for the freedom of expression » sign together the book For Rushdie, which illustrates well a will on behalf of personalities, of which some are asserted believing, to leave the shade and to condemn the religious censure :

« Thus, withdrawing oneself from silence, the indifference and division, a group one- set up would be tempted to say a possible community- endorsing, beyond any reserve, the defense of freedoms of creation and expression, the refusal of the death sentence and the obscurantism, and a safety with Salman Rushdie^42(*). »

This emergence of the at the same time anti-islamist and Moslem intellectual is helped when Salman Rushdie asserts his Islamite. At the beginning of the business, this last, born in Bombay in 1947 in a Moslem family, posts her atheism : « I cross in any god (...) to say the things more simply : I am not Moslem ^43(*). » A few months later, it explains in Times its conversion : « I found my own way in a intellectual comprehension of the religion, and the religion always was for me Islam ^44(*). » This choice is included/understood with difficulty because it breaks the binary diagram (believing people/atheistic elite) described above. Many supports for Rushdie are declared surprised, even being wary with regard to this decision which would prove that « the religious terrorists apparently gained the part^45(*) ». « He embraced the fanatic religion of those which are believed in right to kill a novelist because of what he writes », then explains Arnold Wesker, member of the committee of support of the writer^46(*).

With the risk to appear paradoxical, the Rushdie business thus marks the break of a binary system (fanatic people/atheistic elite) and replaces it by a triangular diagram (fanatic people /atheistic elite or « moderately » Moslem). This new table, hardly less rigid than the precedent, devotes the birth of a new media figure of Moslem intellectual avant-gardist. Consequently, it appears possible to be at the same time provocative and Moslem, to be persecuted by the islamist ones in spite of its faith. How this image it developed these fifteen last years ?

2) Evolution of this figure of the moderate Moslem intellectual

Although incomplete, there is thus emergence of the intellectual avant-gardist of the Moslem and Moslem world with the Rushdie business. This one has a so resounding echo that writers, like the Nobel Prize 1988 Naguib Mahfouz (born in 1911), whose book the Wire of Médina^47(*) had been put at the Index before the Satanic Verses, acquire a new visibility. The majority of these intellectuals avant-gardists, of Moslem confession, moderated and combatant the extremism, illustrate regularly the files of newspapers dealing with the religious censure in the Moslem world.

Others « Rushdie businesses », with the media repercussion certainly more limited but having their importance, occur regularly during years 1990. In 1992, the Al-Azhar oulémas condemn Farag Foda for its thought considered to be too laic. It is assassinated a few days afterwards. In the same way, a wave of attacks begin with death from the journalist Tahar Djaout falls down on the Algerian intellectuals since 1993. Naguib Mahfouz itself is stabbed in 1994 but survives its wounds. There is thus a prolonged image of the moderate Moslem intellectual persecuted in his country for its judged ideas progressists from a Western point of view.

And like these intellectuals « are not prophets in their country where one is rather afraid of those which «think»^48(*)», much of Moslem personalities oppressed in their country of origin exiled oneself in France. We can quote among them in particular them « new Algerian intellectuals » : Mohammed Sifaoui, journalist with Marianne, Latifa Ben Mansour, novelist, Hassan Zerrouky, journalist with Humanity or Slimane Zeghidour, from now on chronicler on TV5. They now seeming privileged witnesses of Islamism, having fought it in spite of their Islamite. In the field, Mohammed Sifaoui showed the most prolific analyst, in particular publishing sick France of Islamism^49(*), Lettre to islamist of France and Navarre^50(*), My brothers assassins^51(*), and On the traces of Bin Laden^52(*). But the other Algerian intellectuals become specialists be integrist are not in remainder : if Slimane Zeghidour, more known under the pseudonym of Saladin draftsman, had the appearance of a islamologist in the veil and the banner^53(*), Hassan Zerrouky delivers also her investigation into islamist nebula^54(*). As for Latifa Ben Mansour, it is from now on more essay writer that novelist, having delivered to it-also a panel of studies on the dangers of the religious extremism, like the lies of integrist^55(*) and Brothers Moslem, wild brothers^56(*). To retain the example of the latter, a portrait, published in the World, a change of consideration on behalf of a certain French press illustrates : it is possible to be intellectual Arabic and Moslem :

« Of its family culture, fight émancipatrice of its people and this release which in theory the access to knowledge brings, Latifa Ben Mansour preserved the Moslem faith and the taste of the freedom - which is not incompatible - like its pride of Algerian^57(*). «

If we can speak about birth of the intellectual of the Moslem world avant-gardist, it is thus because there is a certain coherence in this social group, in particular around the combat against the religious integrism. For example, last year, it is well with the call of a committee of Moslem intellectuals carried out by the writer Mauritanian Beddy Ould Ebnou that had been organized, in Paris, a demonstration of support for the French hostages removed in Iraq. Once again, it is adhesion with a collective demonstration which is the best proof of the existence of this sociological group.

There is thus, since 1989, a certain turning in the way of introducing the intellectuals agitators of the Arab world, who tend to supplant the French converted in the role of intellectuals Moslem avant-gardists. Nevertheless, all these intellectuals, although affirmed Moslems, did not acquire notoriety by the assertion of their Islamite. Slimane Zeghidour, affirms that « it is necessary to react, be indignant, according to universal criteria and not in the name of national, ethnic or religious solidarity^58(*) ». Moreover, Latifa Ben Mansour points finger well the paradox between this desire not to be let lock up in an Islamic identity and the refusal to leave the categorization of Moslems to the only extremists :

«Well lived Islam is serene, peaceful, by no means aggressive, interdependent, partagor. Like says it the proverb, happy people do not have history. This Islam, you will never see it in the hysterical and sterile claim; it is in work, the reflection and causes the respect. Unfortunately, one does not see these people on the plates of television, one does not hear them with the radio. Moreover, these people do not like to be designated by their religion, but by the whole of the parameters which constitute them and which make they human beings^59(*). »

The qualification of Moslem is thus more one invention media that the result of a posted goal on behalf of the interested parties :

« Indeed, I have realized for a few years that I did not speak any more in my proper name of citizen responsible for my acts and my standpoint which can certainly disturb, but which engages only me, I also realized that I am not regarded as subject of my stating but like belonging to a community, not Algerian, (.), but MOSLEM^60(*). »

The birth of the Moslem intellectual avant-gardist resulting from the Arab world is also difficult because of the perpetuation of the traditional image of the combatant of the Islamism which is inevitably atheistic. The Rushdie business has indeed in this field shown its limits, as the skepticisms expressed with regard to its posted faith prove it. The case of Talisma Nasreen is also eloquent. Often presented like « a Rushdie news », she says herself openly « very, very atheist » : « I never declared that I regretted my remarks, like Salman Rushdie^61(*). » More recently still, the example of Chattord Djavann, nonMoslem Iranian novelist, auteure of a lampoon against the veil, show us that the case Rushdie was not completely meaning. Whereas this one lives hidden since more than fifteen years, it declares in 2004 :

« It would be necessary that the free-thinkers of Moslem origin dare to speak for désacraliser Islam and Coran. The Islamic dignitaries would be thus gradually obliged to admit that individuals of Moslem culture can be agnostic or atheistic, that the intellectuals of Moslem origin are free to criticize Islam and Coran or to free themselves some without incurring the charges of blasphemy or sacrilege^62(*). »

From 1989 thus, the French media start to introduce avant-gardists of the Moslem world like Moslems. But it is a reduced image. The faith of these intellectuals is more one private business that a real identity. Often taken refuge political, carrying a repressed Islam, they tend to disappear with the profit from leaders resulting from the European context.

Concurrently to this type of intellectuals, another category emerges, that of the reformers of Islam. Although inheriting a long tradition reformist, these new intellectuals profit from an economic situation which enables them to really appear on the scene « médiatico-intellectual » French.

* ³⁶ As illustration, a drawing of Plantu, the Express train, 16/8/1993, puts in scene crowd attending a prayer. Among them, only one does not request and reads the newspaper. «  I see of them one which thinks  ! «, a monk exclaims by pointing of an index synonymous with fatwa the intellectual non-believer.

* ³⁷ Chantal of Cap, «  The large disintegrator  », the New Observer, 23/3/1989.

* ³⁸ Anonymous article, «Satanic Verses. The intellectuals mobilize themselves in France and abroad  », the World, 24/2/1989.

* ³⁹ Emilie Rene, «  The Rushdie business. World protest and community of interpretation  », Books of the CERI, 1997.

* ⁴⁰ Antoine de Gaudemar, «  Salam Salman  », Release, 7/10/1993.

* ⁴¹ = «  scientists  », term appointing the guaranteeing theologists of the Islamic tradition in Islam sunnite.

* ⁴² Editors, «  Preface  », in For Rushdie, the Discovery, 1993, pp. 11-12.

* ⁴³ Salman Rushdie, «  In all good faith  », Release, 8/2/1990.

* ⁴⁴ Marie Guichoux, «  An invisible man  », Release, 20/6/1991.

* ⁴⁵ Domenica Dhombres, «  The writer Salman Rushdie will go soon to Egypt  », the World, 21/1/1992.

* ⁴⁶ Arnold Wesker, quoted by Marie Guichoux, «  An invisible man  », Release, 20/6/1991.

* ⁴⁷ Naguib Mahfouz, trad Jean-Patrick Guillaume, Wire of Médina, Southern Acts, 1999, 528 p.

* ⁴⁸ Jean-Pierre Péroncel-Hugoz, «  Intellectuals in search of identity  », the World, 20/5/1994.

* ⁴⁹ Mohammed Sifaoui, sick France of Islamism, Seek-Midday, 2002, 240 p.

* ⁵⁰ Id., Letter with islamist of France and Navarre, Seek-Midday, 2004, 120 p.

* ⁵¹ Id., My brothers assassins, Seek-Midday, 2003, 176 p.

* ⁵² Id., On the traces from Bin Laden, Seek-Midday, 2004, 192 p.

* ⁵³ Slimane Zeghidour, the Veil and the Banner, Hatchet, 1990, 156 p.

* ⁵⁴ Hassan Zerrouky, islamist nebula, Number 1, 2002, 372 p.

* ⁵⁵ Latifa Ben Mansour, lies of integrist, Rock, 2004, 262 p.

* ⁵⁶ Id., Brothers Moslem, wild brothers, Ramsay, 2002, 266 p.

* ⁵⁷ Andre Laurens, «  Felt identity  », the World, 12/11/1990.

* ⁵⁸ Forum with Slimane Zeghidour of the 17/9/2004, available on the site nouvelobs.com.

* ⁵⁹ Maintenance Besma Lahouri & Eric Conan with Latifa Ben Mansour, «well lived Islam is serene, peaceful, by no means aggressive», the Express train, 18/9/2003.

* ⁶⁰ Latifa Ben Mansour, lies of integrist, COp cit., pp. 11-12.

* ⁶¹ Talisma Nasreen, «  Atheist and layman, like Voltaire  », the World 2, 26/2/2005.

* ⁶² Chahdortt Djavann, «  Secularity, guarantor of the national unit  », the Barber, 6/1/2004.