submitted on 2024-10-28, 10:04 and posted on 2024-10-30, 10:09authored byMunera Sultan H. A. AlDosari
What obligations do states have under international law to accommodate their religious minorities? This research explores Islamophobia in France through a legal lens to determine whether the French state is in violation of international law norms and treaties. The notion of Islamophobia has taken the forefront of news reports and agencies creating a visible social schism between Muslim minorities and the French majority. While accounting for the French value of laïcité, this research investigates whether Islamophobic sentiments are real or if it is a reaction to the inability, albeit failure of French Muslims to integrate in France’s secular society through the critical lens of international law, by examining whether French laws uphold or violate international law norms. The objectives of this thesis are two-fold. Firstly, it aims to explore whether France is violating international laws through its decrees, laws and regulations on religion, especially Islam through the study of international laws in comparison to the French decrees. Secondly, it aims to explore whether France allows its Muslim citizens to practice their beliefs without fear of discrimination and whether France adheres to its own Constitutional statement. Through an analysis of French laws this research determines that although French approaches to Muslims are in line with various rulings and cases in the European context, the legal implications and outcomes of French legislations further perpetuate difference, rather than governing it.