Houria Bouteldja

Houria Bouteldja (2016)

Houria Bouteldja (born January 5, 1973 in Constantine , Algeria ) is a Franco-Algerian political activist and spokeswoman for the Parti des Indigènes de la République (PIR), which describes herself as an anti-racist fighter against Islamophobia and neocolonialism . It is the subject of much controversy and has been accused of anti-Semitism , sexism , racism , communitarianism and homophobia .

biography

Houria Bouteldja studied applied foreign languages ( English and Arabic ) in Lyon . Since 2001 she has worked at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris , where she is responsible for the allocation of spaces.

In 2003 she helped found the collective "Les Blédardes" ("Bled" is a popular word among immigrants for the homeland or village). In another collective, “Une école pour tous et toutes” (“A school for everyone - pupils”), she fought against the law on the display of religious symbols in public schools, as they considered the ban on wearing the veil "Neo-colonial" practice or even viewed as the "new Dreyfus affair ".

In January 2005, Bouteldja was one of the initiators of the appeal that brought the “Indigenous Movement of the Republic” (“Indigènes de la République”) into being and became its spokesperson. The “indigenous people of the republic” portray themselves as a movement that denounces France's colonial past, against discrimination against “descendants of the colonized population” and, more generally, against the racist and colonialist ideology they believe to be the present Shape the social policy of the French state.

In 2014 she received the "Fight Against Islamophobia" award from the " Islamic Human Rights Commission ", a non-profit organization that campaigns against the "violation of Muslim rights" and as an Islamist association "close to Hamas and as a bridgehead to the Khomeinist lobby" applies, as several journalists and activists, including Caroline Fourest , report.

When Fadela Amara , president of Ni putes ni soumise (an association that fights against sexism in the French suburbs) was appointed Secretary of State for Urban Policy in June 2007, she stated that it was a “promotion of Islamophobia and racism ".

In November 2017, the University of Limoges hosted Houria Bouteldja for a seminar on post-colonial studies , which sparked a debate because of its controversial positions. After the president of the university, Alain Célérier, responded positively to the invitation, he finally withdrew it and pointed out the "danger of disturbing public order". The Minister for Higher Education, Frédérique Vidal , then urged the universities to "be vigilant".

Legal affairs

After she was charged on May 10, 2010 with racist libel for using the term " souchien ", she was acquitted on January 25, 2012.

On October 24, 2012, a man sprayed her with paint in front of the Institut du monde arabe . The Jewish Ligue de défense juive (LDJ) confessed to this deed the following day . The assassin Daniel Benassaya, webmaster of the LDJ, was sentenced in May 2016 to six months in prison with a suspended sentence and 8,500 euros.

Political positions

Houria Bouteldja describes herself as an anti-racist activist who campaigns against “Islamophobia” and “neocolonialism”; it is itself the subject of numerous controversies. She is specifically accused of being anti-Semitic , homophobic , sexist , communitarian and racist .

In an article entitled "Les habit neufs du doriotisme " in 2006, she denounced what she believed to be the "national-populist tendencies of a certain number of actors on the French left," specifically targeting the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo .

While she claims to have "ambivalent feelings" towards the controversial comedian Dieudonné , who is regularly criticized for his anti-Semitism, she praises his "attitude of resistance to the white world" and the " Zionists ".

In November 2011, she signed a manifesto denouncing the support Charlie Hebdo received after the arson attack on its premises.

In 2016, Bouteldja published the book “Les Blancs, les Juifs et nous - Vers une politique de l'amour révolutionnaire” (“The Whites, the Jews and Us - Towards a Politics of Revolutionary Love”), which sparked heated controversy. Various media and political observers accused Houria Bouteldja of representing racist and homophobic opinions and arguing within a purely communitarian logic. The editor-in-chief of Le Monde diplomatique , Serge Halimi , accuses her of calling on the left to "subordinate everything - social dominance, male dominance, persecution of sexual minorities - to the fight against white 'hegemony". And this on the basis of a "theoretical reflection that ultimately contains only one single variable, namely 'West' versus 'Indigenous', conceived symmetrically in blocks that are almost always homogeneous, solidary and unchangeable".

In Halimi's view, “all historical lighthouses of the centuries-old struggle for human emancipation (rationalism, trade union movement, socialism, feminism, internationalism) are swept away by the currents of essentialism and religion”.

Polemics about the use of the word "souchien"

In the TV show "Ce soir (ou jamais!)", To which Bouteldja was often invited, she explained in the June 2, 2007 issue:

"We have always focused on the working-class neighborhoods (...), with their lack of knowledge, political awareness, we should educate them, etc., and the rest of society and its privileges were covered up (...), and I would like to say: it is the rest of western society, or at least what we call the Souchiens - because we have to give them a name - the whites. The question of national identity must be shared by everyone, and there is a lack of knowledge. "

Houria Bouteldja claimed that she spoke unequivocally of “souchiens”, a grammatically correct word creation that was constructed from the expression “Français de souche” (for example: native French) and not from “sous-chiens” (for example: sub-dogs) . As a result of the increasing controversy, she has clarified this point several times, in particular in her own article entitled “Petite leçon de français d 'une sous-sous-chienne aux souchiens mal audiants” (“A little French lesson from a subordinate for the hard of hearing Souchiens ").

The weekly Marianne participated as the first medium in the polemics on June 28, 2007 with an article entitled “Une petite leçon de racisme” (“A little lesson in racism”). For the author, the term "souchien" is a disguised insult that intentionally plays with the homonymous "sous-chien". By referring to herself as a “subordinate”, Bouteldja rejected the accusations. With the new creation “souchien” she only wanted to designate the autochthonous French or the “whites”.

When the Minister reassured Brice Hortefeux almost a year later that Bouteldja “treated the French as underdogs” and promised not to allow such expressions to be used with impunity, a communiqué des Parti des Indigènes de la République , PIR, affirmed that it was are false allegations.

The Alliance générale contre le racisme et pour le respect de l'identité française et Chrétienne ("Alliance against racism and for the respect of French and Christian identity"; Agrif), which is classified as right-wing extremist, filed on May 10, 2010 in Toulouse filed a lawsuit against Bouteldja for racist libel. On January 25, 2012, Agrif and Bernard Antony lose the trial and Houria Bouteldja is acquitted. The Toulouse Criminal Court justified its judgment as follows: “The expression 'Français de souche' was common in official usage and referred to French settlers and expatriates living abroad, especially in Algeria”, “but was used on a neo-racist basis as part of politicization from the 1980s onwards the topic of immigration exploited ”. The Tribunal recalls, however, that the term “Français de souche”, on which the term “souchien” is based, has respectable connotations.

The plaintiffs and the public prosecutor appealed. For the Advocate General of the Court of Appeal, the term “souchien” is a “racist insult”.

Houria Bouteldja was acquitted on November 19, 2012 by the Court of Appeal in Toulouse; Agrif's cassation action was dismissed on January 14, 2014.

The term "souchien" is used in particular by the right-wing extremist group Jeunesses Nationalistes ("Nationalist Youth", founded in 2011 by Alexandre Gabriac (born 1990)), which calls for "the rebellion of the Souchiens to be brought to the streets" with the slogan : "Bouteldja, you're fucked! The Souchiens are on the street. "

middle East

In the TV show "Ce soir (ou jamais!)" She announced:

“ Hamas and Hezbollah are resistance movements that are fighting back. (...) I say loud and clear that these two organizations are resistance movements. "

In the same broadcast she spoke out against the “Zionist lobby”. In a photo, Bouteldja posed with a smile next to a sign that read: "The Zionists in the Gulag".

On the occasion of the march of the “Indigenous Peoples of the Republic” on May 8, 2008, when asked about the presence of signs with the image of Hamas founder Ahmad Yasin , she replied :

“Sheikh Yasin is an anti-colonialist who fought against Israeli colonialism. All anti-colonialists are cordially invited to join us. "

The following year, on the occasion of the fifth march, she declared:

“Whether we come from Africa, the Arab-Muslim world, the Caribbean, the banlieues or simply from the ranks of anti-colonialism: We must unite in this common struggle for our dignity in France. We must unite to express together our unconditional solidarity with all the peoples who are at war. We must unite to give unconditional support to the struggle of the Palestinian people to regain their land. And no accusation of anti-Semitism will force us to withdraw. "

With reference to Frantz Fanon and Jean-Paul Sartre's foreword to his book “ The Damned of This Earth ”, Bouteldja explains that Sartre betrayed himself by recognizing Israel's right to exist :

“Sartre survived. Because the man in the preface to 'The damned of this earth' has not yet finished his work: to kill the white man. Sartre is not Camus , but neither is he Genet . Despite his empathy for the colonized and their legitimate violence, nothing will prevent him from questioning Israel's right to exist. (...) Sartre's good white conscience ... It is this conscience that prevents him from completing his work: liquidating the white man. (…) Sartre should have written: 'To kill an Israeli means to kill two birds with one stone, to make an oppressor and an oppressed man disappear at the same time: there remains a dead man and a free man.' That's the step Sartre couldn't take. This is his defeat. The white man resists. Isn't philosemitism the last refuge of white humanism? "

racism

In an interview that appeared in the magazine Nouvelles Questions Féministes in February 2006, Bouteldja argued that discrimination and segregation would create an apartheid logic that would lead to an increase in communitarianism - and identity claims, which developed "racism in minorities" Anti-white racism actually exists and is growing: “Yes, we exist. Because we did everything ... We tried everything. We left home. We loved you. We wanted to do what you do ... We loved you so much! But we were standing in front of a 'WALL OF ARROGANCE'. "She adds:

“This is what the indigenous peoples call: 'shit'. According to him, we propose to return to a healthy base. (...) Accept the word: You don't like it ... but accept it anyway! (...) Now we don't want to please you anymore; you take it as it is and we fight together, on our own foundations; and if you don't, tomorrow all of society will be fully responsible for anti-white racism. And it will be you, it will be your children who will suffer. Even if you have nothing to reproach yourself for, you will have to face your entire story from 1830. Every white man, the most anti-racist anti-racist, the least paternalistic paternalist, the most sympathetic of all sympathizers will have to suffer like everyone else. Because when there is no more politics, then there are no more details, only hatred. And who will pay for everything? It will be everyone, each of you. So this is serious and dangerous; if you want to save your skin, now is the time. The indigenous people of the republic is a project for you; this society that you love so much, save them ... now! Soon it will be too late: Whites will then no longer be able to go to certain quarters of the banlieue, like left-wing organizations today. They have to prove themselves and will always be suspected of paternalism. Today people like us still talk to you. But it is not certain whether the next generation will still accept the presence of whites. "

In June 2012, she was co-signatory of a declaration that denounced the three-year declaration of principle of the anti-racist Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l'amitié entre les peuples (Mrap) of April 1, 2012 in Bobigny , whereby in particular the passages on the anti-racist criticized white racism,

In April 2015, she said: “The ideology that mixed couples or the meeting of two cultures should be beautiful is really bad. In abstract terms, there is no reason to oppose it. The problem, however, is that there are power relationships between cultures. ”In 2016 she wrote in “ Les Blancs, les Juifs et nous ”:

“I belong to my family, my clan, my neighborhood, my race, Algeria, Islam. (...) You don't recognize a Jew because he declares himself a Jew, but rather by his will to immerse himself in whiteness, by his glorification of his oppressor and his will to embody the canon of modernity "

The book was presented in the Marianne magazine as a “little breviary on anti-racism that is transformed into unrestrained racism”. The daily Liberation described the work as "hateful logorrhea" and "disgusting branding". The newspaper denounces Bouteldja's "identity drift". You have legitimate reasons for outrage, but have provided "untenable" answers to the problems raised by you and document a "disgusting historical ignorance". The philosopher Tristan Garcia argues that the positions in Bouteldja's work use race as a “strategic category” and that their view, like any radical decolonial thought, oscillates between a strategic reappropriation of racial segregation and a “kind of non-white racial epistemology ”.

During a debate in “Ce soir (ou jamais)” shortly after the book was published, political scientist Thomas Guénolé attacked Houria Bouteldja: “Today there are parts of anti-racism that - and it pains me to say that - racist became". He accused Houria Bouteldja of being racist , misogynistic and homophobic by quoting the various interventions and writings on Jews , whites , women, mixed couples and homosexuals. This view is shared by the journalist Jean Birnbaum, who in an article in Le Monde on June 9, 2017 describes the outstanding role of Houria Bouteldja “in the ethno-differentialistic change of a part of the left” that “has broken away from the universalist utopia to see the absolute enemy in white ”. The journalist Thomas Guénolé comments on Bouteldja's stance as follows: "When a black woman is raped by a black man, it is understandable that she should not bring charges to protect the black community". In the style of black feminists in the USA, Bouteldja also criticizes what she calls “white feminism”.

For the twenty intellectuals, including Christine Delphy and Annie Ernaux , who, in response to the article on June 19 in Le Monde, wrote a statement of solidarity in support of Houria Bouteldja and political anti-racism, “it is evident that the critics of Bouteldja's book ' Les Blancs, les Juifs et nous' and stopped at the title without understanding it. ”Jack Dion of Marianne magazine responded to this statement with the following words:“ Defend an unrestrained racist while you pretend to be left-wing The philosopher Robert Redeker then published a commentary in Le Figaro Vox entitled “The Bouteldja case: the petition, a hologram of intellectual comfort”.

The newspaper Le Canard enchaîné points out that Houria Bouteldja talks about coexistence between immigrants and autochthons in her 2016 book, but that she actually refuses. As an example, it is given that they would refuse the historian Pascal Blanchard any cooperation in coming to terms with colonialism because it is white. In the book “La fabrique du musulman”, the political scientist Nedjib Sidi Moussa Moussa vehemently attacks “a clerical left with racial tendencies”, represented by the positions of Houria Bouteldja.

As a result, 40 intellectuals, including Rony Brauman , Eric Fassin and Lluis Sala Molins , propose the thesis that “Houria Bouteldja and the Parti des Indigènes de la République were victims of a witch hunt”. Regarding the politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon, they complain that "the accusations of anti-Semitism that he has made against Houria Bouteldja are unacceptable".

Homophobia

In 2013, in the context of the same-sex marriage debate , Houria Bouteldja stated that "the homosexual lifestyle does not exist in the working-class neighborhoods", "which is not a mistake," and that "marriage for all is only about white homosexuals," she said states that “that does not mean that there are no homosexual practices in the banlieues, but that they are not a priority and there are much more important and pressing questions.” The sociologist Daniel Welzer-Lang responded to these statements as follows: “Like Bouteldja to claim that people don't exist that way when you only have to open your eyes to see them is homophobia ”. The LGBT advocacy group Le Refuge takes the view that Bouteldja's view carries the risk of further stigmatizing young homosexuals in the banlieues.

According to Bouteldja, the Arab man who is coming out is "committing an act of submission to white rule."

In an interview with Jeune Afrique magazine , she defends herself against the allegation of homophobia:

“My words have been distorted in the press. I just said that LGBT identities are a new phenomenon in Europe. That didn't exist in the 19th century. They are essentially European. A distinction must be made between homosexual practice and the social identity of homosexuals. The latter is not raised or recognized in all countries. In some countries there is a social recognition of a phenomenon without it being politicized, accompanied by claims or a demand for identity. And in other countries it's the other way around, as in the West. "

The journalist Serge Halimi points out the following passage in the book “Les Blancs, les Juifs et nous” : “'There are no homosexuals in Iran'. This is Ahmadinejad speaking . That sentence pierced my brain. I framed it and admire it. (...) Ahmadinejad, my hero. (...) Civilization is outraged. (…) But I am jubilant. "Halimi remarks:" A strange attitude on your part to glorify the president of a country that executes homosexuals and at the same time claims that they do not exist. "

In the same book, Bouteldja writes about Arab homosexuals who are coming out : “If the whites are happy that the native male is coming out, then that is both homophobia and racism. As everyone knows, the “Tarlouze” (fagot) is not exactly “a person”, because the Arab who loses his masculine strength is no longer a person. ”Thomas Guénolé quotes this passage to accuse Bouteldja of homophobia. In an article published in the LGBT publication Yagg , Thierry Schaffauser , an act-up activist, accuses Guénolé of tendentiously using quotes from Houria Bouteldja's book on “Ce soir (ou jamais)” . Schaffauser takes the view that the political scientist tried to mislead the audience and that Bouteldja, far from being homophobic, presents a political analysis of homophobia.

The daily Liberation accuses Bouteldja of portraying “white and indigenous masculinity” and “being human in Europe and the Maghreb” as irreconcilable, as if men or women “could only be defined in terms of gender in the imagined legacy of their ancestors”. The newspaper concludes that Houria Bouteldja is "adopting the worst of the post-colonial catechism by determining people based on their geographical origin".

The actress and author Océanerosemarie, herself a lesbian LGBT activist, defends Bouteldja in a commentary in which she explains that Bouteldja's positions "can in no way be called homophobia". She, too, criticizes Bouteldja's criticisms for taking Bouteldja's quotes out of context.

terrorism

After the Islamist attacks in the cities of Toulouse on March 11 and 19 and Montauban on March 15, 2012 in the Midi-Pyrénées region in southern France, Bouteldja issued a statement on the main perpetrator, Mohammed Merah: “Mohammed Merah, that's me. The worst part is that it really is. He's an Algerian like me, he grew up in a banlieue, he's a Muslim like me. (...) Like me, he knows that he will be treated as an anti-Semite if he supports the colonized Palestinians, and as a fundamentalist if he supports the right to wear the headscarf. Mohamed Merah is me and I am him. We have the same roots and grew up under the same conditions. We are postcolonial subjects. We are natives of the republic. (...) Mohamed Merah - I am him and I am not. (...) With his act he switched to the side of his own opponents. OUR opponent. With his deed he grasps one of the most important dimensions of our enemies: namely that of viewing Jews as the Zionist essence or as an essence at all. "

Publications

Chapter in “La Révolution en 2010?”: Les vrais enjeux de 2007
Descartes et Cie, coll. "Cahier Laser", No. 10,2007 ISBN 2844461034
With Sadri Khiari, Félix Boggio Éwanjé-Épée and Stella Magliani-Belkacem: "Nous sommes les indigènes de la République", Paris, Amsterdam, 2012, 435 + VIII p. ISBN 978-2-35480-113-7
"Les Blancs, les Juifs et nous: versus une politique de l 'amour révolutionnaire", Paris, La Fabrique, 2016, ISBN 978-2-35872-081-6
“Pouvoir politique et races sociales”, Période magazine , June 2016.

Individual evidence

↑ Functional description of Houria Bouteldjas on the PIR website

^ Anne-Sophie Mercier : “La Politique du PIR”, Le Canard enchaîné , Nov. 15, 2017, p. 7.

^ "Pétition contre l'interdiction du voile à l'école" (archive), lmsi.net, March 15, 2004

↑ Houria Bouteldja: " De la cérémonie du dévoilement à Alger (1958) à Ni Putes Ni Soumises: l'instrumentalisation coloniale et néocoloniale de la cause des femmes " , wikiwix.com, Oct. 2004

↑ Houria Bouteldja, Catherine Grupper, Laurent Lévy, Pierre Tevanian: "Le voile à l'école: une nouvelle affaire Dreyfus" , Jan. 2004

↑ "Appel pour les assises de l'anticolonialisme postcolonial: Nous sommes les Indigènes de la République!" , In: Jérémy Robine: "Les" indigènes de la République ": nation et question postcoloniale", cairn.info, 2006

↑ Romain Bertrand: "La mise en cause (s) du" fait colonial "" , in: "Politique africaine", Éditions Karthala, 2006/2 (Issue No. 102)

↑ Caroline Fourest: “Éloge du blasphème”, here in the chap. Brouiller l'alerte ; Grasset, Paris, 2016

↑ See “lagrif.net” ; archived here

↑ Marie-Estelle Pech: "Quand un antiracisme dévoyé s'immisce dans l'éducation" , Le Figaro , 25/26. Nov. 2017, p. 11

^ Racist and migrant insults against the autochthonous French; German about " Drecksköter " (lit. Unterhund )

^ "La porte-parole des indigènes de la république agressée à Paris" , Liberation , October 25, 2012

↑ "Procès LDJ: des peines allant de 6 mois avec sursis à 12 mois ferme" , Le Courrier de l'Atlas, May 31, 2016

↑ See “La dérive identitaire de Houria Bouteldja” , Liberation, May 24, 2016

↑ Houria Bouteldja et Omar Benderra: "Les habits neufs du doriotisme" ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , oumma.com, Feb. 23, 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / oumma.com

^ Gilles-William gold needle : "Petit rappel de la litanie raciste d'Houria Bouteldja à une Insoumise amnésique" , lefigaro.fr, 7th Nov. 2017

^ "Pour la defense de la liberté d'expression, contre le soutien à Charlie Hebdo!"

↑ Bruno Rieth: "Indigènes de la République: Thomas Guénolé démontre le racisme, la misogynie et l'homophobie de Houria Bouteldja" , Marianne, March 21, 2016

↑ Jack Dion: “Houria Bouteldja ou le racisme pour les nuls” ; marianne.net, April 9, 2016

↑ Serge Halimi: "Ahmadinejad, mon héros" , Le Monde diplomatique, August 2016

↑ See lagrif.net .

↑ See in the following Houria Bouteldja: "Sur une polémique qui ne cesse pas de rebondir - Petite leçon de français d'une sous-sous-chienne aux souchiens malentendants" , indigenes-republique.fr (PIR), 7 July 2007

↑ See previous FN on the Bouteldja article in indigenes-republique.fr

↑ See Éric Mandonnet and Laurent Chabrun: "Sarkozy n'a pas la nature d'un Machiavel" , L'Express , May 28, 2008

↑ Cf. “Hortefeux s'en va en guerre. Contre le racisme? Non… Contre le MIR !!! ” , Indigènes de la République, May 30th 2008

↑ See “Le racisme anti-français et la haine anti-blanc devant les tribunaux” (archive), Chretiente.info, May 10, 2010

↑ "Le mot 'souchien' ne mord donc pas ..." , Liberation, Jan. 25, 2012

↑ “Houria Bouteldja relaxée en appel” , Le Figaro, November 19, 2012

↑ “Chambre criminelle, January 14, 2014, 12-88.282, Inédit” , Cour de cassation , Légifrance

^ "Malgré l'interdiction de la manif, les Jeunesses nationalistes réussissent leur coup" , Le Monde, Droites extrêmes, September 28, 2012.

↑ See "lagrif.net"

↑ Bruno Rieth: "Indigènes de la République: Thomas Guénolé démontre le racisme, la misogynie et l'homophobie de Houria Bouteldja" , Marianne, March 21, 2016

↑ “Marche contre la république raciste et colonisatrice” , Houria Bouteldja in the video (Dailymotion, 3 min.), May 8, 2008

↑ "Discourse Houria Bouteldja à la Vème Marche des indigènes de la république" (archive, site of "Days of Glory de la République", May 15, 2009).

^ Pierre-André Taguieff : L'Islamisme et nous. Penser l'ennemi imprévu , Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2017, ISBN 978-2-271-11460-0

↑ Interview by Christelle Hamel and Christine Delphy with Bouteldja: "On vous a tant aimé · e · s!" , Nouvelles Questions féministes, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2006