Fri 02 October 2020:
In a long-awaited address, Macron insisted “no concessions” would be made in a new drive to push religion out of education and the public sector in France
Emmanuel Macron has described Islam as ‘a religion that is in crisis all over the world’ as he unveiled a proposal to battle Islamic radicalism which had created a ‘parallel society’ living outside of French values.
Macron was immediately criticised for stirring up Islamophobic and racist feeling to appeal to far-Right voters ahead of the presidential elections.
The willingness to use Islam & minority Muslim communities to rally supporters by promoting a divisive culture war against minorities, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, shows more about those who promote such divisiveness than anyone else… https://t.co/qJxShTIleJ
— Miqdaad Versi (@miqdaad) October 2, 2020
In a keynote speech lasting more than an hour, France’s head of state said earlier today that Islam was in crisis due to ‘an extreme hardening’ of positions in recent years.
In a long-awaited address, Macron insisted “no concessions” would be made in a new drive to push religion out of education and the public sector in France.
“Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world today, we are not just seeing this in our country,” he said.
He announced that the government would present a bill in December to strengthen a 1905 law that officially separated church and state in France.
The measures, Macron said, were aimed at addressing a problem of growing Islamic radicalisation in France and improving “our ability to live together”.
“Secularism is the cement of a united France,” he insisted, but added that there was no sense in stigmatising all Muslim believers.
Macron no longer hiding his feelings about Islam. No longer radical Islam, now it’s just Islam that is the problem https://t.co/ljRK3LuNMM
— Bruno Maçães (@MacaesBruno) October 2, 2020
Yassar Louati, a prominent civil liberties activist based in Paris, has said: ‘The repression of Muslims has been a threat, now it is a promise.
‘In a one-hour speech #Macron burried #laicite, emboldened the far right, anti-Muslim leftists and threatened the lives of Muslim students by calling for drastic limits on home schooling despite a global pandemic.’
Rim-Sarah Alaoune, a French academic, also took to social media to say: ‘President Macron described Islam as “a religion that is in crisis all over the world today”. I don’t even know what to say.
‘This remark is so dumb (sorry it is) that it does not need any further analysis… I won’t hide that I am concerned.
The head of state added that there would also be closer scrutiny of the curriculum at private schools and stricter limits on home-schooling for reasons other than a child’s health problems.
Some 1,700 private Muslim school and colleges currently teach around 85,000 children in France.
Community associations that receive state subsidies will have to sign a contract avowing their commitment to secularism and the values of France.
The new measures will also include a ban on the wearing of religious symbols for employees of subcontractors providing public services, such as transport operators.
The rule already applies to public servants.
Macron’s long-awaited address came 18 months before presidential elections where he is set to face a challenge from the right, as public concern grows over security in France.
He announced that the government would be presenting a bill in December to strengthen a 1905 law that officially separated church and state in France.
The proposed law is expected to go before parliament for debate in the first part of next year.
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