Daniel Sibony is a psychoanalyst and the author of Don de soi ou partage de soi? (2000), Lectures bibliques (2006), Marrakech, le départ (2009), Le Sens du rire (2010) and De l’Identité à l’existence (2012), all published by Editions Odile Jacob.

‘It is obvious that a problem exists between Islam and the others (with occasional peaks of terrorism or anti-Semitism). But the idea put forth in this book is that Muslims are not responsible — be they moderates, fundamentalists or simply from a “Muslim cultural background”.
‘It’s not their fault if their founding text “curses” Jews and Christians and if that incites some of them to take action. To argue that any terrorist who signs his actions with the words “Allah is great” is actually taking a million men hostage, by pretending to be in their vanguard, should not keep us from questioning the nature of a word or of part of a text that, when brandished, allows such massive hostage-taking — not to mention those who are direct victims.
‘What is at stake, then, is a relation to a text, its power over its own people and its comments on others. Yet that text is untouchable. So what can be done to stop violent fundamentalists from wanting to act on the basis of the harshest formulas, and moderates from camouflaging them, to the best of their ability — and to replace all this with real open-mindedness and honest conviviality?’ writes Daniel Sibony.

• The profound causes and ambivalence underlying the uneasy relations between Islam and the West.
• A return to one of Islam’s founding texts and an essay on group psychoanalysis.