Universiteit van Amsterdam
Unmaking Strangers: The cultural politics of emotion in the formulation of a counter-
narrative to Islamophobia
Nadine Tijdink
10002298
Master Thesis Comparative Cultural Analysis
Supervisor: Mikki Stelder
Second Reader: Jules Sturm
15 June 2016 2 3
Table of Content
Introduction 4
Resetting the mood: the affective value of a hug in the formation of a counter-narrative to
Islamophobia 7
Imagining France as how it should be: #NousSommesUnis, a video by the Etudiants Musulmans de France 21
Declining the mood with a carefully crafted “Fuck Off”: A protest photo by a French-Syrian couple on Place de la République 37
Conclusion 52
References 56 4
Introduction
Since the terrorist attacks on January 9 and November 13, 2015 in Paris, France has been in quite a tense state. The mood that prevails public debate has become more Islamophobic and xenophobic, which is fueled by the extension of the State of Emergency until at least the end of July
2016.1 This tense mood has lead to a hyper surveillance of Arabs and Muslims in France. The dominant narrative justifies this hyper surveillance through the production of the threat, casting
Muslims and Arabs as potential terrorists. Fear is hereby mobilized in order to reinforce the French government’s power on the dynamics of exclusion directed at incoming refugees, as well as French
Muslims and French Arabs living in France.
In this thesis I analyze three responses to the terrorist attacks of 2015 in Paris - two of which come from French Muslims, and one from a French-Syrian couple that lives in Paris. I will look at how they contribute to the formulation of a counter-narrative to Islamophobia in France. In the first chapter, I will close-read a video that shows the performance of a blindfolded Muslim man, who stands in the middle of Place de la République in Paris, asking for people to give him a hug if they trust him and do not see him as a terrorist. In the second chapter, I will close-read a video from the
Etudiants Musulmans de France, who express their sadness about the events and make a call to their French co-citizens for unity. In the third chapter I will analyze a protest photo from a French-
Syrian couple. Different from the other responses, the couple clearly articulates their anger about the deep-rooted racist discourse that existed long before these events. However, they do combine this with an expression of love, stating that “love will always win”.
The reason I chose these particular objects is that they have an important element in common: emotion. They show how we are led by the emotions of fear and hate that the media and