Islamophobia Watch: Soldiers And Retired Generals Of France Promote Islamophobia Ahead Of Next Years Elections
Soldiers Of France Warn Macron Government Of
Impending Civil War Due To Islamic Separatism
Main Points:
1. One thousand soldiers and retired generals
of France have written an open letter to President Macron warning him of a
civil war in France.
2. They say that Islamic separatists have got
control of a large part of France.
3. The initiative has been taken by a retired
army general Fabre Bernadac
4. Presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has
backed the initiative.
5. The Macron government said it will take
legal action against the soldiers who violated the principles of neutrality and
loyalty by signing the letter.
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New Age Islam
Correspondent
3 May 2021
Getty Images
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One
thousand soldiers including 20 retired army generals have written an open
letter to President Emmanuel Macron warning his government of an impending
civil war due to the increasing influence of Islamists and religious extremists
in the county. The open letter that was first posted on a retired general
Jean-Pierre Fabre Barnadac's blog "Place Armes". The letter says,
“The hour is grave, France is in peril." The signatories of the letter
strongly felt that France was facing several deadly dangers and held Islamic
extremism and the hordes of banlieue responsible for the impending doom. The
letter further warns Macron, “It is no longer the time to procrastinate
otherwise tomorrow civil war will put an end to this growing chaos and deaths
for which you will be responsible-- with number in the thousands."
The letter
further said, "Fanatic partisans were creating divisions between
communities" and that "Islamists were taking over whole parts of the
nation's territory."
The letter
is seen by Muslims in France as an attempt by the opposition to use
Islamophobia to win the Presidential elections to be held in 2022. The retired
general Jean-Pierre Fabre-Barnadac is behind the letter whose book "The
Damned of France" was released last month also raises the issue of growing
separatism and fractures in French society. Before posting the letter, he had
also expressed the same fear in his talk on Sud Radio. He had said that he was
fearful of the current situation which is headed toward an explosion.
More
importantly, one of the signatories of the letter is Ms Marine Le Pen who is
running for next year's Presidential elections. She praised the soldiers and
retired generals for showing the courage to speak up against the 'growing
control' of the Islamic separatists. She wrote on the far right news website
Valleurs Actuelles on which the Islamophobic letter was reproduced, "The
concerns that you courageously express cannot remain at the stage of expressing
indignation, however powerful. It requires in democracy the search for a
political situation which must materialise through a project of
alternatives." On the website she went further to invite the retired
generals to join her campaign in the 2022 Presidential elections.
The Macron
government has very strongly reacted to the letter and the Minister Incharge of
Defence has said that action will be taken against active soldiers and retired
generals for defying principles of neutrality and loyalty.
It has
become very clear that Fabre-Bernadac has been in the forefront of this
anti-Muslim campaign. Before writing this letter, he released his book on the
same narrative and simultaneously he expressed the same views on Radio.
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That he is
going to make 'Islamic separatism' and the 'looming civil war' a political
issue together with Ms Marine Le Pen next year is very clear and for that he is
preparing the ground. By inviting retired army generals to join her campaign
against Muslims in the next year's elections, Marine Le Pen has made the issue
very explosive. That 1000 active soldiers have already joined the campaign is
evident from the letter. For active soldiers to be involved in political issues
will have very serious ramifications not only in French politics but also in
other countries where Muslims are in minority and are facing Islamophobia.
However,
French President Emmanuel Macron cannot be absolved of his responsibility to
foment Islamophobia in the country. The current spike in Islamophobia in France
has been witnessed since September 2020 when he had made the controversial
" Islam in crisis" statement and later brought the draft bill which
aimed to curb "Islamic separatism". After that his government cracked
down on 76 mosques across France suspected of separatism. His Prime Minister
Jean Castex had said, “The enemy of the republic is an ideology that calls
itself radical Islamism whose objective is to divide French people from one
another,"
The new
bill was aimed at curbing online hate campaign, punishing doctors for issuing
virginity certificates, clamping down on home-schooling of children over three
years old. And making community associations to sign declaration of allegiance
to the values of republic.
However
Macron had admitted that ghettoisation of immigrant Muslims by the French
government and society was also at the root of the growing separatist feelings
among the immigrant Muslims.
It can not
be denied that growing extremism and growing influence of the ISIS and Al Qaida
is also the cause of growing Islamophobia in France. Religious Extremism has
grown in France since 2012 more rapidly and after the emergence of the ISIS
France has suffered a number of terror attacks in Paris, Nice and other cities
and towns.
About 260
terror attacks have been made in France since 2015. Some of them were lone wolf
attacks while some others were organised attacks. In October 2015, two brothers
inspired by Al Qaida carried out an attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie
Hebdo and killed 12 people.
In November
2015, a gang of 8 ISIS gunmen attacked various locations in Paris and killed
130 people and injured 300.
On July 14,
2016, a Tunisian-born resident of Nice drove a truck into a crowd celebrating
Bastille Day and killed 86 people.
These
attacks are apart from lone wolf attacks on policemen, churches and priests.
To counter
terrorism and radicalisation of Muslims, French government has formed laws and
mechanism to curb it. It monitors 15000 suspected militants, has set up
de-radicalisation centres and quarantine centres in prisons where radicalised
prisoners are set apart from other prisoners. Prisons in France are also used
by terrorist organisations as radicalisation centres.
The ISIS
has its online recruitment campaign for Muslims and publishes its French
language magazine Daral Islam.
Another
important aspect of Islamic extremism in France is that the banlieue are the
breeding ground for terrorism in France. Banlieues are suburbs of large cities
and are low income housing projects for immigrants. They are divided into
autonomous administrative entities and do not constitute part of the main city.
The banlieues in the suburbs of Paris are desolate, rundown neighbourhoods of
shops, mosques and high-rise apartment buildings built decades ago for
immigrants from French colonies in Africa. These banlieues are mostly populated
by immigrant Muslims from Africa, Middle East and Eurasia and live an
impoverished life. A report in New York post says:
"Unfortunately
these poor neighbourhoods in which they live act as breeding grounds for
terrorism because many of these people feel as if they have no other options or
hope."
The
government also does not care much for them and so they mostly go unmonitored
or unpoliced. The terrorist organisations take advantage of this situation and
lure Muslim youth from these banlieues into terrorism. The two brothers who
attacked Charlie Hebdo were residents of banlieues. The ghettoisation of
immigrant Muslims is to a great extent responsible for their radicalisation.
It is also
a fact that Muslims in France face discrimination and harassment in public and
in jobs. And it is also a fact that majority of the Muslims have integrated and
assimilated into the French society. Muslims in France form only 8% of the
total population and among them only a handful nurture radical ideology and
perpetrate violence and terrorism which the French government has ample legal
and physical powers to deal with. So, presenting the theory that a handful of
separatists and extremists will cause a civil war in the country is obviously a
political ploy to put Macron on the defensive and make political gains in the
elections.
To counter
the propaganda of his opposition that Macron is being lenient to the Islamic
extremists and pushing the country towards hell, Macron will probably assume
harder posturing agaimst Muslims to prove more nationalist than Marine Le Pen
and the 1000 soldiers and retired generals who have written the letter and
cause a further growth of Islamophobia in the country. And the peace-loving and
law abiding Muslims of France will suffer more.
URL: https://newageislam.com/muslims-islamophobia/islamophobia-watch-soldiers-retired-generals/d/124772
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