By Roger Cohen
Dec. 9, 2020
The French
government, determined to combat an ideology it views as “the enemy of the
Republic,” on Wednesday unveiled draft legislation to combat radical Islamism,
calling the measure “a law of freedom” essential to peaceful coexistence in
French society.
The law, which has been assailed by Turkey and other Muslim
countries, and criticized as “heavy-handed” by the U.S. envoy on international
religious freedom, reflects President Emmanuel Macron’s resolve to address a
series of terror attacks that have left more than 260 people dead in France
since 2015. Three such attacks in recent months, including the beheading of a
history teacher, Samuel Paty, who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad
to his class, have hardened positions around the legislation.
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“This bill is not a text aimed against religions or against
the Muslim religion in particular,” Prime Minister Jean Castex declared after
the cabinet approved the draft law. “It is the reverse — it is a law of
freedom, it is a law of protection, it is a law of emancipation against
religious fundamentalism.”
Earlier, Mr. Castex told the French daily Le Monde that “The
enemy of the Republic is an ideology that calls itself radical Islamism, whose
objective is to divide French people from one another.”
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The legislation would curb online hate speech of the kind
that led to Mr. Paty’s killing; punish doctors who provide so-called “virginity
certificates” for traditional religious marriages; clamp down on home-schooling
for children over three years old; and rein in community associations by
obliging them to sign declarations of allegiance to the “values of the
republic” at the same time as imposing strict controls on their funding.
The words “Islamic” or “Islamist” do not appear in the
legislation, but the government’s intent is clear: To get at the root of the
separate culture of extremist groups holding the laws of Islam as superior to
the laws of the Republic.
To its opponents, the draft law risks defeating itself. The
danger of a conflation of Islam, the religion, and Islamism, a political
movement, is evident. The bill could sharpen the sense of alienation felt by
some, but far from all, French Muslims, who make up about 8 percent of the
population. The ghettoization of Muslim immigrants of mainly North African
origin in dismal projects on the outskirts of big cities is a longstanding
social problem that successive governments have promised to address, with
limited success.
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The bill has gone through three name changes, reflecting its
sensitivity, starting life as an “anti-separatism” law and ending up as a law
“to reinforce Republican principles.” It will be presented to the National
Assembly, or lower house of Parliament, in January.
Its genesis lay in a speech Mr. Macron made two months ago
in which he vowed to defeat “Islamist separatism” and uphold French secularism,
with its strict view that religion is an affair of the individual that has no
place in politics. The speech was denounced as a “provocation” by President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, a view rejected by many French people, who have
suffered through successive attacks.
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Ambassador Sam Brownback, the U.S. ambassador at large for
international religious freedom, said this week that he was concerned by events
in France. Referring to the draft law, he said, “When you get heavy-handed, the
situation can get worse.”
France is unlikely to be much concerned by this view from a
representative of the outgoing Trump administration. President Trump’s
so-called “Muslim ban,” barring the entry of foreign nationals from seven
Muslim-majority countries, was condemned widely in France and around the world.
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Mr. Macron, facing an election 18 months from now, has been
tacking to the political right, where, with the left in tatters, the center of
gravity in French politics appears to lie. His tough line on Islamism and the
introduction of a much-contested security bill form part of this strategic
evolution.
In his October speech, Mr. Macron conceded that the French
state had suffered from “its own form of separatism,” in failing to address the
marginalization of some Muslims in France. He vowed to right this wrong, but
there has been scant follow-up.
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Mr. Castex, the prime minister, told reporters that France
would “build more social housing, better distributed throughout the territory
in order to break with the logic of ghettos.” That promises to be a long
process with an outcome as uncertain as the attempt to legislate away the seeds
of extremist Islamism.
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Roger Cohen is the Paris bureau chief for The Times. He
joined The Times in 1990, and has served as a foreign correspondent and foreign
editor.
Original Headline: France Takes On Islamist Extremism
With New Bill
Source: The
New York Times
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-west/emmanuel-macron’s-tough-line-islamism/d/123721
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