Jews and Muslims in Sarcelles: Face to Face or Side by Side?

Abstract : From an intergroup conflict perspective, this paper studies cross perceptions and patterns of sociability between Jews and Muslims in a French suburban multicultural context, the town of Sarcelles (Val d’Oise), where violent anti-Semitic riots took place in July 2014. Drawing on a sample representative of the town’s adult population from an experimental telephone survey conducted in January 2019, we show that everyday relations between Jews and Muslims do not show any particular tension, and that antisemitism is massively condemned. However there is a strong feeling of insecurity among Jews who both tend to be closest to their own group, and are seen as a separate group, with more social and political influence locally than other groups.