Translation: How Securitization of Islam travels from Right-wing to Left-wing Political Parties

Since the war on terror began, Muslim minorities living in Western countries have been increasingly treated as potentially radical individuals in cahoots with Islamist groups, and often as an urgent threat to national security. This process of growing surveillance and stigmatization has contributed shaping an Islamophobic discourse and discriminatory policies.

Yet, while Islamophobia is traditionally associated to right-wing nationalism and politicians like Trump, Le Pen and Meloni, its insidious circulation among left-wing parties has not received the attention it deserves. Do the accusations against Muslims change from Right to Left? Is it another sign of the current mainstreaming of radical right-wing ideas to liberal-progressive parties, a fruit of the anti-religious legacy shared by the Left, or a justified reaction to jihadist terrorism?

In my recent article in Security Dialogue, I argue that political parties use different language to discuss security issues (in this case, Islam and Muslims): some left-wing parties believe, like the Right, that high numbers of Muslims are turning away from Western values and espousing radical narratives and behaviours. However, the Left needs to adjust this discourse in a way that sounds understandable to its electors, usually accustomed to support anti-racist agendas and uncomfortable to hear their representatives bashing ethnic minorities. Hence, left-wing parties translate Islamophobia and its securitarian dimensions in the name of values that match with liberal, progressive and social-democratic ideas.

The French Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste) is an appropriate example of this process. France was dramatically hit by multiple jihadist terrorist attacks, with 255 fatalities registered from 2014 to 2019. Through the analysis of fifty-seven speeches and interviews released by former President François Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls in the years 2015 and 2016, I have found out that, while the Socialist Cabinet substantially agreed on securitarian policies firstly vocalised by the Right (such as the state of emergency and the denaturalization of binationals involved in terrorist activities), its language substantially differed. Islamism was presented as a threat to key values cherished by the French Left, such as laïcité (the French constitutional principle of secularism), gender equality and human rights. The emergency policies approved by Hollande (some of which were then normalized by current President Emmanuel Macron) were condoned in the name of the rule of law, democracy and respect of French Republican principles, without indulging in narratives frequently used by the Right (such as the “clash of civilizations” against Islam).

In conclusion, I consider this process of left-leaning securitization as a result of three intertwined dynamics:

• impact of the jihadist attacks;
• longstanding hostility of the French Left against religions;
• ideological and electoral momentum gained by the Rassemblement National.

My findings reveal that centre-left parties are not immune from Islamophobia, which is differently translated across parties but equally problematic for its concerns that many manifestations of religiosity from Muslims should be ascribed to processes of radicalization. Such pattern should be explored also in other countries recently governed by left-leaning cabinets, such as Italy, Germany, Denmark and Britain.

• Ugo Gaudino(https://www.kingston.ac.uk/about/staff/dr-ugo-gaudino)is a Lecturer in the Department of Criminology and Social Sciences at Kingston University. He is author of Islamophobia and Translations of Securitization in the UK, France and Italy (OUP, forthcoming) and co-author of Methodologies in Critical Terrorism Studies. Gaps and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Routledge, 2024).