French President Emmanuel Macron Declared - 'We Have the Right to Blaspheme, To Criticise and To Caricature Religions'
By Gavin Mortimer
24 February
2020
Emmanuel
Macron has unveiled his plan to combat the rise of Islamic extremism in France.
Stressing that his fight was not against the religion but political Islam,
'which has no place' in the Republic, the president outlined a series of
measures in a speech last week. Notably, his plans involve an end to the
hosting of imams from countries such as Turkey and Algeria, and more rigorous
control on foreign financing of mosques from the likes of Qatar.
Macron
stopped short of introducing an 'Islam of France', which had been mooted two
years ago, but his intention is to eliminate the malevolent influence of
outsiders.
But is it
too late to stop what Macron described as the 'Islamist separatism' of France,
a process that began in the 1980s when François Mitterrand's Socialist
government turned a blind eye to the 're-islamisation' of the suburbs by men
who took their inspiration from the Iranian revolution?
The alarm
was first raised in 2002 with the publication of Les Territoires perdus de la
République (The Lost Territories of the Republic) by Georges Bensoussan, in
which he exposed the extent of this re-islamisation.
The
response of the chattering classes was to stigmatise Bensoussan as a bigot, but
a decade later France was subjected to a wave of Islamist terror attacks. The
killers came from the milieu described by Bensoussan. A milieu that according
to a secret security report leaked to the press last month has since expanded
to encompass 150 districts now under the control of Islamist extremists. Their
influence was laid bare in a 2016 survey by a liberal think tank that found
that half of French Muslims under the age of 25 would prefer to live under
Sharia law to Republican.
French
President Emmanuel Macron
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The growing
fear is that this generation will turn to political Islam if given the chance,
and that opportunity will arise at next month's municipal elections in which
the Union of Democratic French Muslims (UDMF) is expected to make its presence
felt.
Established
in 2012, the UDMF polled insignificantly in last year's European elections but
in nine inner-city suburbs they took more than five per cent of the vote. That
prompted an outcry from some, notably Xavier Bertrand, president of the
Hauts-de-France region, who warned that 'political Islam is seeking to implant
itself', while Aurore Bergé, spokesperson for the ruling En Marche said she was
'favourable to the idea of banning them'.
But on what
grounds could the UDMF be banned? They are a legitimate political party, and
one whose campaign issues will strike a chord with the public - and not only
Muslims: a crackdown on fraud and delinquency, more environmentally-friendly
policies and a promise to improve public ethics, a hot topic given the recent
[7] withdrawal from the Paris Mayoral race of Macron's candidate, Benjamin
Griveaux, brought down by some lewd images. There are some issues specific to
Islam, such as investment for the halal market and the promotion of 'Islamic
finance', but one candidate assured Liberation in a recent interview: 'We're
not here to implement Sharia Law in France.'
But is
there a need for the UDMF? According to Barbara Lefebvre, one of the
contributors to The Lost Territories of the Republic, political Islam has been
insidiously infiltrating the Republic for years, its activists diligently
manoeuvring their way into positions of power within local communities run by
left-wing councils.
The left in
France need all the support they can get, having lost touch with the white
working class this century, and so they're ready to accommodate Islamists if
they think it will boost their election prospects.
Last month,
for example, the liberal left failed to rally round a 16-year-old girl who was
threatened with death after criticising Islam (and religion in general) in
response to sexist comments on social media. Their moral cowardice was embodied
by justice minister, Nicole Belloubet, (a Socialist before hitching herself to
En Marche), who scolded the girl for her 'attack on the freedom of conscience'.
Her abandonment of the teenager caused an outcry, and the girl's lawyer
retorted: 'It is the left that traditionally defends secularism in this
country. It saddens me that it has not done so in this case.' So feeble was the
reaction of his government that Macron felt obliged to come to the girl's
defence. 'The law is clear,' the president declared. 'We have the right to
blaspheme, to criticise and to caricature religions.'
Now comes
the president's address in Mulhouse, the first part of what he promises is a
long-term strategy to regain the initiative from political Islam and
simultaneously win the hearts and minds of French Muslims. Macron's critics
claim that the timing of the speech is just an attempt to win votes for his
party in next month's elections from people who are contemplating casting their
ballot for Marine Le Pen's National Rally.
Macron is
certainly not the first president to talk tough on the subject of Islam, but
that's all France got from François Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques
Chirac - rhetoric but no action. All the while political Islam continues its
rise, creating ruptures within the Republic that a growing number of French
believe are irreparable.
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Gavin Mortimer is a writer, historian and
television consultant who is the leading authority on WW2 Special Forces.
Original Headline: Can Macron halt the rise of
Islamic extremism?
Source: The Spectator, UK
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-west/french-president-emmanuel-macron-declared/d/123004