| dc.description.abstract | Counter-terrorism in France is understood, for the purpose of this chapter, as being structured around the three key areas: race, religion and criminality. Upon these three themes, the structures of security within a post 9/11 context have been built and maintained, resulting in a highly racialised set of repressive security structures, alongside a noticeably placated civil society. Within a highly racialised historical context, focus has been placed on minority religious groups and communities as constituting a threat to French national values. The way in which terrorism is perceived in France as the coming together of religious ideas with criminal practice, with focus on the spatial sites of the prison and the banlieue, has entrenched and enhanced the marginalisation of minority religious and ethnic communities through security rhetoric. This has, in turn, led to a shift in the way many civil society groups have interacted with counter-terrorism in France. Noticeably in France we see the effects of what Hallswoth and Lea call the ‘securitisation of the life-world’ targeting minority groups whilst simultaneously preferencing and mollifying majority communities (Lea & Hallsworth, 2012), civil society organisations less concerned with challenging counter-terrorism as the racialisation of security has become more stark. By combining race, religion and criminality, French counter-terrorism has become normalised and integrated into internal national values, creating structures of racialised repression grounded in colonial concepts. The 'war on terror' paradigm has had a great impact on France, which have historically viewed Muslim immigrant populations through lens of suspicion and security. This chapter will look at how the events of 11th September 2001 and subsequent incidents of terrorism were used to legitimise repressive security measures against Muslims and Arabs in France, as well as considering how French civil society has developed and reacted (or failed to react) in response. | en |