Abstract

In Europe, Christianity is, paradoxically, often invoked by the political structures (we recall the speeches of the Hungarian Prime Minister or government agencies in Poland) as a tool to introduce abyssal dividing lines between “we” (Europe) and the others (refugees, migrants). On the other hand, Christianity and Islam are also invoked by those who consider that receiving the other is an integral part of Europe: for instance, how Donald Tusk reacted to Orbán's statements of exclusion of non-Christian refugees, saying that it is precisely because he is a Christian that he considers Europe’s duty to open itself to the other. Likewise, for example, the (largely unreported) campaigns of Islamic Europeans, especially in Britain, whose slogan, reacting to attacks that invoke Islam, is condensed in the phrase “not in my name”.

On the other hand, the calling forth the “progress of the Enlightenment” and of the human rights to legitimize military interferences with geopolitical and economic motivations is a known reality. In this case, the novelty is in the instrumentalisation of emancipatory values by the police logic of the “il faut défendre la société”, analysed by the philosopher Michel Foucault. In this new version of social defence, which is now translated into an “il faut défendre l'identité”, the State declares that the attack on our identity must mobilize police intervention.
The seclusion of each culture in its own space, real or imaginary, an imaginary that became reality in the 1920’s and 1930’s with devastating effects and inerasable memories, constitutes an unrepeatable nightmare?

Interventions by António Araújo (historian and constitutionalist, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the New University of Lisbon) and José Neves (historian, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the New University of Lisbon).

Presenter: Tiago Pires Marques (CES) | Moderator: Júlia Garraio (CES)

1^st debate of the Debate Series «Religion, nationalism, neofascisms», organised by the Observatory on Religion in Public Space  (POLICREDOS)

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