29.07.2015 - 14:37 [ Max Blumenthal / Mondo Weiss ]

In wake of January attacks, French Muslims have been demonized in manufactured ‘clash of civilizations’

In our full-length documentary, “Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie,” filmmaker James Kleinfeld and I take a look at France since the January attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket by Islamic extremists.

During my visit to France this March for a speaking tour, we focused our lens on the explosion of Islamophobic incidents, which are up 28% since the attacks, the rise of the far-right and the official repression of Palestine solidarity activism, which French Prime Minister Manuel Valls recently denounced as a form of anti-Semitism. We also document the exploitation of French anti-Semitism by the French and Israeli governments to manufacture a “clash of civilizations” that is playing out in the streets of Paris.