{"id":523568,"date":"2024-05-21T08:42:23","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T06:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=523568"},"modified":"2024-05-21T08:47:44","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T06:47:44","slug":"sacredness-mimetism-instrumentalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/company\/sacredness-mimetism-instrumentalization\/","title":{"rendered":"Return of the sacred: from mimicry to instrumentalization"},"content":{"rendered":"

Discussions of the sacred are gradually returning to the forefront, both among young people on social networks and in the media-political world. A return that is more instrumental than spiritual.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

At a time when the de-Christianization of the West seems to be continuing on the path it began at the end of the 18th centuryth <\/sup>In the 21st century, references to Christianity and spirituality have multiplied in the media, on social networks and in politics. This reappraisal of the sacred, particularly the Catholic, seems to stem above all from a surge of identity triggered by a feeling of submergence in the face of Arab-Muslim immigration, which has not abandoned its religion and traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, a survey by the IFOP institute already pointed to a clear increase in hostility to Islam among practicing Catholics in recent years. J\u00e9r\u00f4me Fourquet, director of the institute, felt that this trend was due to \u00abthe idea of competition, of an asymmetry between the Catholic religion, which is historic but in demographic decline, and an Islam perceived as being in full demographic dynamic\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faced with this sense of decline, the appeal of Christianity has become increasingly popular among the European conservative right, as Catholicism specialist Yann Raison du Cleuziou has observed for Marianne<\/em><\/a>This instrumentalization makes it possible to assert that Muslims will never be French or Europeans like the others (...) Religious symbolism becomes a pure instrument of identity.\u00ab<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Religion as an accessory<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On social networks, the \u00abcompetition\u00bb between the two religions is also visible. On the one hand, rigorist Muslim preachers are making eyes at young people in European neighborhoods with videos worthy of \u00abSalafism for dummies\u00bb. On the other, through a surprising mimicry effect, a certain conservative youth has decided to claim \u00abits\u00bb sacred Catholicity, ranging from the simple use of religious symbols to more original phenomena such as the promotion of the Christian veil by young women on TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On closer inspection, the practical application of this \u00abTikTok Catholicism\u00bb actually resembles a poor counterfeit of Islam in its most puritanical versions. It adopts its codes, themes and formulas (\u00abmay God make it easy for us\u00bb), creating random parallels between Christian and Muslim veils, Lent and Ramadan... Between rejection and imitation of the Muslim religion, Christianity becomes an accessory to be added to the conservative panoply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n