The Controversies of Le Monde in Avignon - July 21

The gods seemed to have left the disillusioned West, deities to have wisely slipped away from our globalised planet. But there was no twilight of the gods. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Westerners thought both ideologies and religion were coming to an end. It was an illusion. Now, mass murder in the name of God is happening in the heart of Europe over and over again. The attacks in Paris and Brussels and the spectacular explosions of bloody violence in the Middle East have put the question of the relationship between terror and belief centre stage again. East versus West, Islam versus Christianity, them versus us: the war of the worlds would be unavoidable. Maybe we should look closer into the stories and motivations of “radicalised” youths. Are we experiencing the death throes of religion or a rearmament of obscurantism? Are we witness to a radicalisation of Islam, or to an Islamisation of radicalism?

Meeting conceived and hosted by Nicolas Truong, in charge of the Ideas-Debates section of Le Monde
With Olivier Roy, political specialist, Fethi Benslama, psychoanalyst

In partnership with Le Monde