Spaces of Islamophobia and spaces of inequality in Greater Paris

This paper draws upon quantitative data collected from one of the principal associations fighting Islamophobia in France along with the population census, and provides a step forward in understanding the operation and distribution of Islamophobia. It presents a geography of Islamophobia in Paris based on statistical data, and aims to observe whether or not this geography corresponds or contrasts with geographies of inequality (such as those associated with gentrification, deprivation and marginalisation), by analysing the various spatial patterns stemming from the maps. This socio-spatial analysis of anti-Muslim discrimination is important in Paris because since the terrorist attacks in 2015, anti-Muslim sentiment has increased sharply. The mapping of Islamophobia and its association with the spatial distribution of different socioeconomic and demographic variables synthetized in a typological map display significant forms, relations and diversities within Paris. This cartographic analysis demonstrates that the geography of Islamophobia does not necessarily refer to spaces where ‘Muslims’ and the victims of Islamophobia live in great majority, and rather refers to more privileged and central areas such as Paris intra-muros. Victims mostly experience anti-Muslim incidents outside their everyday spaces away from their homes, such as public institutions and workplaces. Indeed, the findings raise the significance of the exact place where incidents occur as well as societal attitudes to these ‘hierarchical’ places where the perpetrator probably feels more comfortable in behaving in an antisocial and sometimes violent way.