In recent days, I've often been asked if Muslims should be worried about the possible rise to power of a far-right coalition. My first answer is a shrug: What can this opportunistic coalition amount to, with no program or culture, and which feeds on an accumulation of discontent? And what weight does it carry when placed next to our great religion, which brings together almost two billion followers worldwide, in all their diversity? Could this coalition, which is incapable of even saying whether or not it will roll back the pension reform, really be able to strike a blow at our faith?

That said, there is the question of daily life. And there, we know that we could expect new regulatory measures and new policies of exclusion, with devastating consequences for people's lives. Our response would be to take legal action, because while a majority can change laws, it cannot call into question fundamental rights, which are protected by domestic, European and international courts. We will counter these petty regulations with the noble law.

My concern is real, and I've never been so worried about the intolerance that is becoming a fact of life in France. What is painful is to see a general discourse developing in France that builds consensus by lashing out at Islam and pinning all the world's faults on the Muslim community. This discourse has taken hold everywhere, and we need to analyze it in order to combat it.

It's heartbreaking, but it's a reality: yes, Islam is implicated – unwillingly – in the success of the far right. What is the reality of Islam in France? Five million believers who worship at home and, increasingly, in places of prayer. Muslims who have been diligent students of French secularism, financing buildings with their donations. While there have certainly been a few problems linked to the financing of schools or mosques, or to out-of-line remarks made by one imam or another, these remain rare.

Islam's place in France

Acts of terrorism committed by radicalized individuals, killers who claim to belong to our religion, have traumatized France. The response came from the law, the police and the judges; radicalism has never been shown to be rooted in the Islam we have built in France. In our community, we are constantly on the lookout for the slightest sign of radicalism.

Experience has taught me that the real problem is with the normal practice of the Muslim faith. The problem is with the return of religion through Islam, which allows prominent intellectuals to assert that it is normal to be Islamophobic. France, which was highly structured around Catholicism, has marginalized its religion, but without resolving the fundamental problem: the meaning of life on earth. Atheists have an alternative way of thinking, but, for the most part, this question has been left hanging. Islam has come to tear apart this status quo, which was no more than a veneer. The problem is with the return of religion.

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