Relations between Islam and the West are problematic, to say the least. For Denis Bachelot, the discord arises less from theological or religious issues than from the perception of women and their role in society. The sexual liberation that has developed in the West since the 1960s, and to which we are naturally attached, shocks the Muslim world. While Islamists accuse us of moral decadence, the spread of the veil in countries like France, shows that ordinary Muslims, without being fanatics, identify with different sexual models from our own. In ghettos, amongst youth with Muslim roots, values like virility, strength and domination are at diametrically opposed to the mingling of the sexes and contesting of male-female separation that constitute essential trademarks of western modernity. So it is at this sensitive point – one which lends itself to all sorts of phantasms and which touches the very heart of personal identity – that the opposition crystallizes into what can seem to be an irresolvable way. Whence the impression of growing antagonism. Beyond our borders, the Muslim world rejects the exhibitionism of Western popular culture. Within them, Gallic French say they feel ill-at-ease, specifically towards Muslims, while the latter resent what they feel as a lack of respect… More than just an issue of social justice, this is the key to the both the immigration crisis and the crisis in the ghetto. The contrast between the liberated, even provocative icon in fashion magazines and the image of the veiled, submissive woman is a violent one… More than the influence of extremist movements, the intensity of this confrontation and its symbolism constitute, according to Denis Bachelot, one of the main causes of escalating social tension. It is a problem that we need to look in the eye.