Stimulus
Text extract (adapted): "In August 2021 France passed a law to 'reinforce respect for the principles of the Republic', widely known as the anti-separatism law. It expanded the state's power to monitor mosques, associations and home schooling, framing a strict reading of secularism as a shield against radicalisation. Supporters argued the state was protecting shared national values after the murders at Charlie Hebdo, the Bataclan and, in 2020, of the teacher Samuel Paty. Critics replied that treating an entire religious minority as a security problem tells young French Muslims that their faith and their citizenship cannot coexist, and that suspicion, not belief, is what pushes a few towards the very extremism the law claims to prevent."
(d) Evaluate the extent to which securitising a minority religious identity does more to create insecurity than to prevent it.
Essay preview
Securitisation is the process, associated with the Copenhagen School, by which political actors present an issue as an existential threat so that exceptional measures become acceptable. Identity here means a sense of belonging, such as religion, that shapes both individual political behaviour and how the state categori