Securitization and Radicalization in France
- Vladimir Kovtun | Genocide Watch
- 56 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Part Two: How Securitization Drives Radicalization
By Vladimir Kovtun
Genocide Watch
Introduction
France has a well-resourced approach to combat radicalism through educating students to value France's republican values, French secularism, and laïcité (in layman’s terms, freedom from religion). Nevertheless, according to Europol, France had the most jihadist activity in the European Union (EU) in 2021: five attacks and 96 arrests, almost as many as the rest of the EU combined. The French government's response has been predicated on normalizing emergency security measures and combating what they describe as separatism through controls on Islamic religious associations. However, this has been paired with political rhetoric echoing far-right talking points on Islam, which has been correlated with a rise in Islamophobic acts. On March 31, 2025, a Muslim man, Hischem Miraoui, targeted for his Muslim identity, was murdered. A month later, a far-right French radical stabbed and killed Aboubakar Cisse because he was Muslim. The gravity of the incidents deepened among French Muslims when France’s justice system was slow to act, resulting in lawsuits and mass riots. During 2020, the year of the high-profile murder of Samuel Paty and the French government’s subsequent reaction, hate crimes increased by 53% compared to 2019. One in three French Muslims reported religious discrimination in 2025. The backlash against Muslims is especially noteworthy because findings have suggested that discrimination is one of the primary causes of Islamic radicalization in the Muslim diaspora.
It seems clear that efforts to demonize or deport Muslims only fuel discrimination against them, which in turn contributes to jihadist terrorism rather than reducing it. France’s educational and religious policies need significant reform to deescalate continued intercommunal tensions.
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