French President Emmanuel Macron has been accused by Muslims of using the same political language and political discourse that renowned anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz use. Recently, Macron made several statements insulting Islam and Muslims. First, he claimed that “Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world today.” Then, he ordered the cartoons insulting the Prophet of Islam to be projected onto government buildings in Paris.
TheGuardian Although political candidates such as Le Pen and the even more hard-line Eric Zemmour – who wanted to ban the name Mohammed and create a “remigration ministry” to deport immigrants – are blamed for shifting the political debate to the right, France has been grappling with questions of identity and immigration for decades. Under the guise of combating Islamic extremism and protecting French identity and secularism, religious signs were banned in public schools in 2004, face coverings in public spaces in 2011, and burkinis on public beaches in many towns and cities in 2016.
Many French Muslims feel betrayed by Macron, who campaigned on socially progressive values but has regressed since, critics say, in his attempt to neuter the far right. In 2017, Macron pointed out how some “use laïcité [French secularism] to combat against Islam”. But he then presided over five years in which Muslim lives in France have become increasingly legislated and criticised. This has included the passing of a bill that gives the state the power to specifically monitor Muslim organizations.
In 2020, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, dissolved the largest NGO on Islamophobia in France, calling it an enemy of the republic after the 2020 murder of a schoolteacher by a Chechen Muslim refugee. Amnesty International said this could have “a chilling effect on all people and organisations engaged in combating racism and discrimination in France”.
Electronic Intifada Macron’s struggle against “Islamic separatism,” a campaign designed to strip “foreign influences” from Islam in France. Macron launched the campaign On October 2 in response to a string of horrific terror attacks, which were soon followed by the beheading of Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old history teacher, in a Parisian suburb.
In a major speech, Macron proposed, among other steps, regulating mosques and closing others that refuse to be regulated, prohibiting Islamic home schooling, and requiring Islamic religious leaders to be certified in France and signing a declaration to promote the values of the French Republic (women’s rights, equality, etc) and if the imam doesn’t agree, his mosque will be closed.
Macron has banned the wearing of hijab by girls in schools and women in sport competition. Macron’s critics have decried the proposals as an infringement on the civil liberties of Muslims
Over the last year, the administration of President Emmanuel Macron has been ordering the closure of mosques and the firing of imams across the country – all based on accusations of “separatism” and “inciting hatred” against France and Israel.
As part of his ongoing anti-Muslim crackdown, Macron’s interior ministry in March ordered the closure for six months of the Farouk mosque in Pessac, a Bordeaux suburb. The government also accused the mosque of “giving support to terrorist organizations.” Sefen Guez Guez, a civil rights lawyer who represents the mosque, noted that the government had accused the mosque of “justifying terrorism” – a crime in France.
The ministry accused the mosque’s leaders of promoting “radical Islam” and a “salafist ideology” and circulating “hateful publications about Israel.” In addition to targeting Muslim communities, the staunchly pro-Israel Macron has used similar repression against supporters of Palestinian rights. In February, he ordered the dissolution of two French Palestine solidarity groups.
RT Macron was sent a letter published by Valeurs Actuelles magazine, from 20 furious retired Army generals and 80 active duty officers warning that Islamic terror attacks & ‘Islamic extremists’ are pushing France towards civil war with Islam.
“France is disintegrating,” they wrote, “disintegrating with the radical Islamic hordes of the banlieue (migrant suburbs) who are detaching swathes of the nation and turning them into territory subject to dogmas contrary to our constitution,” they continued. “It is no longer time to procrastinate, otherwise tomorrow the civil war will put an end to this growing chaos, and the deaths, for which you will bear the responsibility, will number in the thousands.”
Over the past four years, 14 attacks carried out in the name of radical Islam have resulted in the deaths of 25 people in France, and 36 others have been foiled, according to the government. But these attacks seem to happen on a regular basis, such as when mother-of-two Stéphanie Monfeture, a 49-year-old police worker, had her throat cut in the entrance hall of the Rambouillet police station by a 36-year-old Tunisian national, identified only as Jamel G, shouting the terrorist mantra of “Allahu Akbar”.
The French government also cited social media posts by Ridouane criticizing its anti-Muslim policies.
On 29 September 2021, for instance, Ridouane posted a message on Facebook criticizing the Conseil d’État’s ruling upholding the government’s dissolution of CCIF, a civil rights group that was dedicated to fighting bigotry against Muslims. Ridouane called the decision “a failure of the rule of law.”
Amnesty International, for instance, called the closure of CCIF “a shocking move from the French government,” and warned that it could have “a chilling effect on all people and organizations engaged in combating racism and discrimination in France.”
So far, the French government has not moved to close down Amnesty International – although Macron has rejected the human rights’ group’s finding earlier this year that Israel perpetrates the crime against humanity of apartheid against the Palestinian people.
Macron has defended and supported the dissemination of hateful anti-Muslim propaganda in the form of cartoons denigrating the Prophet Muhammad, in the name of “liberty” and “enlightenment” and “freedom of the press.”
Andrew+Blackadder says
muslims in France or anywhere in Europe will never be happy until the Prime Minister of that country is a muslim.
Its a bet as to which European country gets their very own muslim Prime Minister… UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, France… Place yer best ladies and germs…
Inspired Infidel says
Are the French people letting the Muslims vote ?
BLR says
all well and good intentions but inadequate , them muslims any thing like the grizzly bears around here you don’t pat their paws and slap their ass and tell them to be good not without your partner behind you with a 458 Winchester magnum you don’t , far fetched comparison I know but logical when applied to these unwanted muslim trouble makers … be lethal now or they come back later and be lethal
Jack Rider says
Oh who are you going to trust, islam or your own eyes? Who are you going to trust, Islam or your own ears? Who are you going to trust, Islam or your own nose (yeah wake up and smell the camel dung!). The lefty politicians and the muslim advocay groups will always attack you with the claim that you are a conspiracy theorist because the murders are unrelated or not proven to be motivated by islam or the perpetrator is unknown (although he shouted allah akbar and dressed in a cloth bag), or they’ll denounce you as an intolerant racist (although islam is not a race). When the marxists and muslim terrorists talk about intersectionality (for political leverage pre-revolution) thats clear evidence that it is not a deluded conspiracy theory. It is real. The clash of civilizations and the marxist revolution is here now. Forget that onepartner is atheist and the other is a religious fanatic. (Both intend to address that anomoly after the revolution in their own way.) What the marxists and muslim activists accuse the host European nations of, they commit themselves. Do you see LGBQT demonstrations in majority muslim countries? Of course not. In such societies they throw homosexuals off of office building roofs. Do you see a really free press in muslim majority countries. The answer is no. What about a Michaelangelo sculpture being sent to a Kabul museum for exhibition? You just know it would be defaced or destroyed as idolotry. The constitutions of Western nations are not suicide pacts. A republican democratic government does not have to denigrate its national heritage and culture. Multiculturalism is poison. Identity politics is poison. Patriotism is a virtue.
Linda Rivera says
Quran (9:5) – “So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captive and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush…
Muslims have 56 huge countries where they can enjoy FULL ISLAMIC SHARIA. 56 countries where Muslims can go to.
Within about 3 decades Muslims will be the majority in Britain and Europe.
Where can native Brits and Europeans flee to, to escape severe Muslim persecution?
Az gal says
Muslums are never happy. They never stop screaming & making demands, impossible to placate.