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Reading reports, it appears that Macron is going full on towards a tougher approach but is that the only way to address this issue?
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Contact the PP Team
How should President Emmanuel Macron tackle the rising tide of violent extremism in the country?
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Cpt. Rishwat
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Agree. I suppose the Muslims will also seek to protect their cultures and values. I don't think that clashes are inevitable, people for the most part can tolerate small differences, if there has been flashpoints in France recently, they were over totally avoidable issues.
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French Muslims reacted with horror at Thursday’s killing of three citizens in the seaside town of Nice, saying the crime is representative of neither their faith nor values.
The attack, which took place inside a church, is the third of its kind in a little over a month and comes amid heightened tensions between Muslim countries and France.
Several calls to boycott French goods were made last week after President Emmanuel Macron defended the right to caricature Prophet Muhammad.
Macron’s comments came after the brutal killing of Samuel Paty, a middle school teacher who showed his pupils drawings of the prophet during a discussion on free speech.
Yasser Louati, a French civil rights activist, said perpetrators of such crimes make no distinction between Muslims and Christians and subscribed to an ideology alien to Islam.
“A woman was beheaded inside a church, this means these people have nothing to do with the sacred. There are no moral boundaries for them,” Louati told Al Jazeera.
“About 750 people were killed in mosques across the world, why can’t we connect the dots and see that this ideology has been spreading that we lost so far the battle of ideas.
“We deal with these attacks as if they were separate from one another when they are not.”
Idriss Sihamedi, an activist whose prominent Barakacity charity was dissolved by authorities on Wednesday over allegations it incited hatred, denounced the knife attack.
“These attacks are serious, and the fact this is happening in places where people come to seek peace makes it doubly serious,” he said in a tweet.
“Support for the families of the victims, but also for the faithful. France is sinking into madness, hatred, anger, and revenge.”
Meanwhile, Faiza Ben Mohammed, a journalist, thought it useful to remind her huge social media following of the prophet’s championing of values such as peace and coexistence.
“The Prophet Muhammad said: ‘Whoever harms a Jew or Christian will find in me his adversary on the Day of Judgement.”
Fatima Ouassak of the parents’ syndicate Front de Mères expressed sympathy for the victims’ families, saying it was important for people to stand in solidarity in these trying times.
“[We are] against the hate-makers responsible for the infernal cycle and the climate of terror of which we are victims, let’s stick together! Solidarity, equality, justice and respect for human dignity.”
This was also the case with Sebastien Abdelhamid, a television host, who expressed “anger and disgust” over what happened in Nice.
“All my thoughts to the victims and their families. What barbarism … these people are not human… It is not possible #nice.”
Others expressed outrage at how some members of the political establishment were attempting to exploit the event for political ends.
Reacting to the news in a tweet, far-right leader Marine Le Pen said “the dramatic acceleration of Islamic acts of war against our fellow citizens … requires … a global response aimed at eradicating Islamism” from French soil.
“You do realise she is using the attack in her political interest … before even showing her support for the victims,” said one Twitter user.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/29/french-muslims-express-sadness-disgust-after-nice
The attack, which took place inside a church, is the third of its kind in a little over a month and comes amid heightened tensions between Muslim countries and France.
Several calls to boycott French goods were made last week after President Emmanuel Macron defended the right to caricature Prophet Muhammad.
Macron’s comments came after the brutal killing of Samuel Paty, a middle school teacher who showed his pupils drawings of the prophet during a discussion on free speech.
Yasser Louati, a French civil rights activist, said perpetrators of such crimes make no distinction between Muslims and Christians and subscribed to an ideology alien to Islam.
“A woman was beheaded inside a church, this means these people have nothing to do with the sacred. There are no moral boundaries for them,” Louati told Al Jazeera.
“About 750 people were killed in mosques across the world, why can’t we connect the dots and see that this ideology has been spreading that we lost so far the battle of ideas.
“We deal with these attacks as if they were separate from one another when they are not.”
Idriss Sihamedi, an activist whose prominent Barakacity charity was dissolved by authorities on Wednesday over allegations it incited hatred, denounced the knife attack.
“These attacks are serious, and the fact this is happening in places where people come to seek peace makes it doubly serious,” he said in a tweet.
“Support for the families of the victims, but also for the faithful. France is sinking into madness, hatred, anger, and revenge.”
Meanwhile, Faiza Ben Mohammed, a journalist, thought it useful to remind her huge social media following of the prophet’s championing of values such as peace and coexistence.
“The Prophet Muhammad said: ‘Whoever harms a Jew or Christian will find in me his adversary on the Day of Judgement.”
Fatima Ouassak of the parents’ syndicate Front de Mères expressed sympathy for the victims’ families, saying it was important for people to stand in solidarity in these trying times.
“[We are] against the hate-makers responsible for the infernal cycle and the climate of terror of which we are victims, let’s stick together! Solidarity, equality, justice and respect for human dignity.”
This was also the case with Sebastien Abdelhamid, a television host, who expressed “anger and disgust” over what happened in Nice.
“All my thoughts to the victims and their families. What barbarism … these people are not human… It is not possible #nice.”
Others expressed outrage at how some members of the political establishment were attempting to exploit the event for political ends.
Reacting to the news in a tweet, far-right leader Marine Le Pen said “the dramatic acceleration of Islamic acts of war against our fellow citizens … requires … a global response aimed at eradicating Islamism” from French soil.
“You do realise she is using the attack in her political interest … before even showing her support for the victims,” said one Twitter user.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/29/french-muslims-express-sadness-disgust-after-nice
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The resurgence in attacks by radical Islamists on French soil has rekindled fierce debates on Islam, secularism and discrimination in France, home to Europe’s largest Muslim population. But Muslim voices are largely kept out of the conversation.
On October 2, the day President Emmanuel Macron unveiled his plan to fight “Islamist separatism” in France, the mayor of the Paris suburb of Trappes, 35-year-old Ali Rabeh, was invited by French broadcaster CNews to discuss Macron’s proposed measures to root out radical Islam from the country’s deprived banlieues.
Rabeh began by calling for more police officers and public services in his town of 32,000 inhabitants, a working-class and ethnically diverse municipality with the unwanted distinction of having seen more homegrown jihadists travel to Syria, per capita, than any other in France.
The conversation soon veered into acrimony when one of the channel’s regular commentators quizzed the mayor about the prevalence of political Islam in Trappes, “a territory lost to the Republic”. He asked Rabeh whether he was even aware that Sharia law was applied there.
“There is no Sharia law in Trappes, nor anywhere in France,” a flustered Rabeh hit back. “There are laws in France to prevent anyone from applying Sharia law. Help me obtain more police officers for Trappes instead of repeating nonsense on TV.”
As another CNews pundit joined in the fray, lecturing the young mayor, Rabeh took aim at the commentators and editorialists whom he accused of pontificating on France’s commercial 24-hour news channels, with no real knowledge of the topic.
“These people know nothing, absolutely nothing about what’s happening on the ground, because they never set foot there,” he blasted. “They’re experts in TV newsrooms, experts in the leafy districts of Paris, who merely lecture and agitate.”
Islam or France
Amel Boubekeur, a researcher at the University of Grenoble who specialises in French Islam, says such heated exchanges are indicative of an ill-informed debate on Islam in France that is dominating the airwaves and stoking tensions.
“There’s a hyper-politicisation of Islam in France, but Muslims are largely kept out of the conversation,” Boubekeur said. “And so are the academics who carry out real research, but are chased away by TV pundits.”
While Islam is a favourite topic of politicians and the media, Muslims seldom get to have their say, Boubakeur argued. The result is a difficulty to understand the extraordinary diversity of opinions and customs among the estimated five million people who make up France’s Muslim population, the largest in Europe.
There are multiple reasons for this, including a structural reluctance by France’s secular state to recognise and engage with religious pluralities. Boubakeur also pointed to a legacy of France’s colonial past “in the tendency to view Muslims as a single, homogeneous bloc” with an immigrant background.
“And then there’s the growing weight of the far right, which has imposed its preferred topics – Islam and immigration – at the very top of the agenda,” the sociologist added.
This has paved the way for hateful speech by the likes of Éric Zemmour, another CNews mainstay, who argues that Muslims must choose between Islam and France, ignoring the overwhelming majority of French Muslims who cherish the country’s laws and values.
Secularism ‘weaponised’
In his October 2 speech, Macron was careful to distinguish between that majority and the small number of radicalised Islamists who foster hatred of France and the Western way of life.
“The problem is an ideology which claims its own laws should be superior to those of the Republic,” Macron said. He stressed that he was referring to “radical Islamism” and not Muslims in general, though he also argued that Islam was “in crisis everywhere in the world” – an assertion that has upset some Muslims well beyond France.
The French president reiterated his stance on October 21, following the gruesome murder of teacher Samuel Paty by an 18-year-old radical Islamist in a suburb of Paris. He vowed that France would never give up freedom of speech and the right to mock religion, including the Charlie Hebdo caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that Paty had shown his pupils in class.
Two weeks later, as angry protests against France and its president swept across the Muslim world, Islamist terrorism struck again on French soil with the deadly stabbing on Thursday of three people in a church in Nice. The horrific attack, carried out by a 21-year-old Tunisian migrant, was swiftly condemned by France’s Muslim leaders, who called for Mawlid celebrations – marking the prophet’s birthday – to be cancelled.
Outrage over the recent resurgence in Islamist attacks has fuelled calls for a more robust response to a murderous ideology that has repeatedly shed blood on French soil – and a more assertive defence of the core principle of laïcité, or state secularism. It has rekindled a dispute between rival understandings of French secularism, which disagree on how far the state should go in asserting religious neutrality in the public sphere.
According to Rim-Sarah Alouane, a legal scholar specialising in religious freedom at the University of Toulouse, French secularism is increasingly being “weaponised” to silence Muslim voices – and not only the radical ones.
“Politicians, pundits and commentators are using laïcité to remove any visibility [of religious minorities from the public sphere], and at the moment it is being used against Muslims,” Alouane said.
She pointed to a discrepancy between Macron’s concern not to lump together moderates and radicals, and a more hardline rhetoric coming from members of his government for whom criticising intransigent forms of secularism is a sign of complicity with the terrorists.
Proud to be French
The term “Islamophobia” – used to refer to hatred of Muslims – has long been the subject of fierce dispute. Since the latest attacks, people who use the term have been described, at best, as appeasers of radical Islam, and, at worst, as its accomplices.
According to Razika Adnani of the Foundation for Islam in France, a body designed to foster a moderate form of Islam and improve relations between the French state and Muslim communities, the notion of a “fear of Islam” has long been used by Islamists to curtail all criticism of the Islam they preach.
Adnani said France was guilty of letting foreign countries finance the country’s mosques and provide its imams, “who have no knowledge of this country and its values.” She welcomed Macron’s pledge to "free Islam in France from foreign influences", stressing that the country is now paying “very dearly” for its past errors.
“Islamists want to live in separate communities, without respecting French laws and values, and this is neither in France's interest nor in that of French Muslims,” Adnani said. She added: “Muslims who have come to France want to be French and live here, but they are hostage to the Islamists.”
According to a survey of France’s Muslim population, published by the Ipsos institute earlier this year, 81 percent of people polled had a positive view of French secularism and 77 percent said they had no trouble practising their religion in France. Asked whether they loved their country, 90 percent answered “yes” and 82 percent said they were proud of being French – matching the percentages for the rest of France’s population.
However, the same survey found that 44 percent of French Muslims believe the rest of society has little regard for them. The figure rose to 61 percent among Muslims living in households earning less than the minimum wage.
Ammunition for the Islamists
The overlapping social, geographical, ethnic and religious discriminations suffered by many French Muslims living in the country’s most deprived suburbs has been amply documented by sociologists – as has their exploitation by Islamist radicals.
Dounia Bouzar, an anthropologist and member of the Observatory of Secularism, a state-funded watchdog, warned that intransigent interpretations of laïcité were also giving ammunition to France’s foes. She pointed at the frequent and highly publicised rows over garments worn by some Muslim women, such as hijabs.
Last month, several French lawmakers walked out of the National Assembly in protest at the presence of a student union representative who wore a Muslim veil, igniting a vitriolic debate. There was similar turmoil last year when a politician in Dijon asked a Muslim mother on a school trip to remove her hijab. In neither case were the women infringing on France’s secular laws.
According to Bouzar, such incidents are routinely exploited by Islamists to back their claims that Muslims are not free to practise their religion in France. The difficulty, she said, is to find the right balance between denouncing this imposture while also recognising the legitimate grievances of marginalised communities.
“Radical Islamists seek to portray their ideology, and their ‘separatist’ stance, as a defence of Islam,” she said. “Those who denounce this should not be treated as ‘Islamophobes’. But neither should the very real stigmatisation of Muslims be denied or dismissed.”
Bouzar added: “Every time we deny the discrimination and negative stereotyping that many Muslims are subjected to, we help the radical groups who feed on the discrepancy between the Republican promise of equality and the reality they experience day to day.”
Voices silenced
Amid the furore triggered by last month’s National Assembly walkout, few bothered to find out what the veiled student representative had to say. Her voice had effectively been silenced – by female lawmakers who marched out in the name of women’s rights.
Fatima Bent, the head of Lallab, a Muslim feminist organisation that campaigns for women’s right to dress and practice their religion as they please, argues that feminists who shun Muslim women for wearing a veil are guilty of the very sin they denounce.
“Using one woman’s fight to oppress another woman is not feminism,” she said.
Bent's group describes itself as neither pro- nor anti-veil, but pro-choice. It denounces an “obsession” by media organisations and politicians, saying Muslim women are routinely subjected to intrusion, harassment and violence.
“There are constant debates about Muslim women, their veils, their bodies – but women are not part of the debate. It’s a violation of their intimacy,” Bent explained. She said Lallab was frequently accused of “advocating hijabs”, lamenting a “demonisation of those, like us, who seek to combat both Islamism and Islamophobia”.
Like numerous analysts, Bent bemoaned the lack of nuance and complexity in discussions of Islam in France. Muslims are not a monolithic group, she stressed, and there is no fit-all norm for Muslim women.
“We defend women who are forced by their families to wear a veil and we defend those who are barred from doing so by societal judgements – it’s not one or the other,” she said, warning that ostracising women was no way to emancipate them.
Bent said Lallab does not deny the existence of radical ideologies that preach violence and hatred, nor the patriarchal oppression suffered by some Muslim women. However, she added, this should not be used to stigmatise all Muslims.
“France is going after the wrong target,” she said, warning that the “manipulation of laïcité creates a confusion between radical Islamists and other Muslims, ultimately encouraging Islamophobia and helping the extremists”.
https://www.france24.com/en/france/...d-in-france-but-muslims-are-not-in-the-debate
On October 2, the day President Emmanuel Macron unveiled his plan to fight “Islamist separatism” in France, the mayor of the Paris suburb of Trappes, 35-year-old Ali Rabeh, was invited by French broadcaster CNews to discuss Macron’s proposed measures to root out radical Islam from the country’s deprived banlieues.
Rabeh began by calling for more police officers and public services in his town of 32,000 inhabitants, a working-class and ethnically diverse municipality with the unwanted distinction of having seen more homegrown jihadists travel to Syria, per capita, than any other in France.
The conversation soon veered into acrimony when one of the channel’s regular commentators quizzed the mayor about the prevalence of political Islam in Trappes, “a territory lost to the Republic”. He asked Rabeh whether he was even aware that Sharia law was applied there.
“There is no Sharia law in Trappes, nor anywhere in France,” a flustered Rabeh hit back. “There are laws in France to prevent anyone from applying Sharia law. Help me obtain more police officers for Trappes instead of repeating nonsense on TV.”
As another CNews pundit joined in the fray, lecturing the young mayor, Rabeh took aim at the commentators and editorialists whom he accused of pontificating on France’s commercial 24-hour news channels, with no real knowledge of the topic.
“These people know nothing, absolutely nothing about what’s happening on the ground, because they never set foot there,” he blasted. “They’re experts in TV newsrooms, experts in the leafy districts of Paris, who merely lecture and agitate.”
Islam or France
Amel Boubekeur, a researcher at the University of Grenoble who specialises in French Islam, says such heated exchanges are indicative of an ill-informed debate on Islam in France that is dominating the airwaves and stoking tensions.
“There’s a hyper-politicisation of Islam in France, but Muslims are largely kept out of the conversation,” Boubekeur said. “And so are the academics who carry out real research, but are chased away by TV pundits.”
While Islam is a favourite topic of politicians and the media, Muslims seldom get to have their say, Boubakeur argued. The result is a difficulty to understand the extraordinary diversity of opinions and customs among the estimated five million people who make up France’s Muslim population, the largest in Europe.
There are multiple reasons for this, including a structural reluctance by France’s secular state to recognise and engage with religious pluralities. Boubakeur also pointed to a legacy of France’s colonial past “in the tendency to view Muslims as a single, homogeneous bloc” with an immigrant background.
“And then there’s the growing weight of the far right, which has imposed its preferred topics – Islam and immigration – at the very top of the agenda,” the sociologist added.
This has paved the way for hateful speech by the likes of Éric Zemmour, another CNews mainstay, who argues that Muslims must choose between Islam and France, ignoring the overwhelming majority of French Muslims who cherish the country’s laws and values.
Secularism ‘weaponised’
In his October 2 speech, Macron was careful to distinguish between that majority and the small number of radicalised Islamists who foster hatred of France and the Western way of life.
“The problem is an ideology which claims its own laws should be superior to those of the Republic,” Macron said. He stressed that he was referring to “radical Islamism” and not Muslims in general, though he also argued that Islam was “in crisis everywhere in the world” – an assertion that has upset some Muslims well beyond France.
The French president reiterated his stance on October 21, following the gruesome murder of teacher Samuel Paty by an 18-year-old radical Islamist in a suburb of Paris. He vowed that France would never give up freedom of speech and the right to mock religion, including the Charlie Hebdo caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that Paty had shown his pupils in class.
Two weeks later, as angry protests against France and its president swept across the Muslim world, Islamist terrorism struck again on French soil with the deadly stabbing on Thursday of three people in a church in Nice. The horrific attack, carried out by a 21-year-old Tunisian migrant, was swiftly condemned by France’s Muslim leaders, who called for Mawlid celebrations – marking the prophet’s birthday – to be cancelled.
Outrage over the recent resurgence in Islamist attacks has fuelled calls for a more robust response to a murderous ideology that has repeatedly shed blood on French soil – and a more assertive defence of the core principle of laïcité, or state secularism. It has rekindled a dispute between rival understandings of French secularism, which disagree on how far the state should go in asserting religious neutrality in the public sphere.
According to Rim-Sarah Alouane, a legal scholar specialising in religious freedom at the University of Toulouse, French secularism is increasingly being “weaponised” to silence Muslim voices – and not only the radical ones.
“Politicians, pundits and commentators are using laïcité to remove any visibility [of religious minorities from the public sphere], and at the moment it is being used against Muslims,” Alouane said.
She pointed to a discrepancy between Macron’s concern not to lump together moderates and radicals, and a more hardline rhetoric coming from members of his government for whom criticising intransigent forms of secularism is a sign of complicity with the terrorists.
Proud to be French
The term “Islamophobia” – used to refer to hatred of Muslims – has long been the subject of fierce dispute. Since the latest attacks, people who use the term have been described, at best, as appeasers of radical Islam, and, at worst, as its accomplices.
According to Razika Adnani of the Foundation for Islam in France, a body designed to foster a moderate form of Islam and improve relations between the French state and Muslim communities, the notion of a “fear of Islam” has long been used by Islamists to curtail all criticism of the Islam they preach.
Adnani said France was guilty of letting foreign countries finance the country’s mosques and provide its imams, “who have no knowledge of this country and its values.” She welcomed Macron’s pledge to "free Islam in France from foreign influences", stressing that the country is now paying “very dearly” for its past errors.
“Islamists want to live in separate communities, without respecting French laws and values, and this is neither in France's interest nor in that of French Muslims,” Adnani said. She added: “Muslims who have come to France want to be French and live here, but they are hostage to the Islamists.”
According to a survey of France’s Muslim population, published by the Ipsos institute earlier this year, 81 percent of people polled had a positive view of French secularism and 77 percent said they had no trouble practising their religion in France. Asked whether they loved their country, 90 percent answered “yes” and 82 percent said they were proud of being French – matching the percentages for the rest of France’s population.
However, the same survey found that 44 percent of French Muslims believe the rest of society has little regard for them. The figure rose to 61 percent among Muslims living in households earning less than the minimum wage.
Ammunition for the Islamists
The overlapping social, geographical, ethnic and religious discriminations suffered by many French Muslims living in the country’s most deprived suburbs has been amply documented by sociologists – as has their exploitation by Islamist radicals.
Dounia Bouzar, an anthropologist and member of the Observatory of Secularism, a state-funded watchdog, warned that intransigent interpretations of laïcité were also giving ammunition to France’s foes. She pointed at the frequent and highly publicised rows over garments worn by some Muslim women, such as hijabs.
Last month, several French lawmakers walked out of the National Assembly in protest at the presence of a student union representative who wore a Muslim veil, igniting a vitriolic debate. There was similar turmoil last year when a politician in Dijon asked a Muslim mother on a school trip to remove her hijab. In neither case were the women infringing on France’s secular laws.
According to Bouzar, such incidents are routinely exploited by Islamists to back their claims that Muslims are not free to practise their religion in France. The difficulty, she said, is to find the right balance between denouncing this imposture while also recognising the legitimate grievances of marginalised communities.
“Radical Islamists seek to portray their ideology, and their ‘separatist’ stance, as a defence of Islam,” she said. “Those who denounce this should not be treated as ‘Islamophobes’. But neither should the very real stigmatisation of Muslims be denied or dismissed.”
Bouzar added: “Every time we deny the discrimination and negative stereotyping that many Muslims are subjected to, we help the radical groups who feed on the discrepancy between the Republican promise of equality and the reality they experience day to day.”
Voices silenced
Amid the furore triggered by last month’s National Assembly walkout, few bothered to find out what the veiled student representative had to say. Her voice had effectively been silenced – by female lawmakers who marched out in the name of women’s rights.
Fatima Bent, the head of Lallab, a Muslim feminist organisation that campaigns for women’s right to dress and practice their religion as they please, argues that feminists who shun Muslim women for wearing a veil are guilty of the very sin they denounce.
“Using one woman’s fight to oppress another woman is not feminism,” she said.
Bent's group describes itself as neither pro- nor anti-veil, but pro-choice. It denounces an “obsession” by media organisations and politicians, saying Muslim women are routinely subjected to intrusion, harassment and violence.
“There are constant debates about Muslim women, their veils, their bodies – but women are not part of the debate. It’s a violation of their intimacy,” Bent explained. She said Lallab was frequently accused of “advocating hijabs”, lamenting a “demonisation of those, like us, who seek to combat both Islamism and Islamophobia”.
Like numerous analysts, Bent bemoaned the lack of nuance and complexity in discussions of Islam in France. Muslims are not a monolithic group, she stressed, and there is no fit-all norm for Muslim women.
“We defend women who are forced by their families to wear a veil and we defend those who are barred from doing so by societal judgements – it’s not one or the other,” she said, warning that ostracising women was no way to emancipate them.
Bent said Lallab does not deny the existence of radical ideologies that preach violence and hatred, nor the patriarchal oppression suffered by some Muslim women. However, she added, this should not be used to stigmatise all Muslims.
“France is going after the wrong target,” she said, warning that the “manipulation of laïcité creates a confusion between radical Islamists and other Muslims, ultimately encouraging Islamophobia and helping the extremists”.
https://www.france24.com/en/france/...d-in-france-but-muslims-are-not-in-the-debate
Varun
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Deal with incidents without mention of religion
Won't give fodder to journalists and social media to allege bias one way or the other.
Won't give fodder to journalists and social media to allege bias one way or the other.
Giannis
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The way they deal with white nationalism
sweep_shot
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Macron made a blunder when he took a dig at Islam while ignoring action of Charlie Hebdo. His political inexperience was in full display.
I think best course of action would have been to condemn the attack and punish the attackers. There was no need to mention religion.
I think best course of action would have been to condemn the attack and punish the attackers. There was no need to mention religion.
Zaz
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Yep they should underplay it and not fan the flames like they dont with other acts by other groups
Madplayer
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1) Take a step back and inhale deeply because you are inept at your job and need it.
2) Ask Charlie Hebdo to stop for a while to let the dust settle.
3) Condemn terrorist beheadings and PRAISE the muslims of France in the same statement which will make a clear distinction between terrorism and Islam. Also condemn stabbings of muslim women and the Right wing terrorists who are pretending to be muslims.
4) Invite French muslim organizations to talk and publicize the outcome.
5) Order an investigation to see whether the right wing is funding Charlie Hebdo. Nothing will come off this investigation because it will be biased from the get go but it will be symbolic and will restore the faith of French muslims in their government.
2) Ask Charlie Hebdo to stop for a while to let the dust settle.
3) Condemn terrorist beheadings and PRAISE the muslims of France in the same statement which will make a clear distinction between terrorism and Islam. Also condemn stabbings of muslim women and the Right wing terrorists who are pretending to be muslims.
4) Invite French muslim organizations to talk and publicize the outcome.
5) Order an investigation to see whether the right wing is funding Charlie Hebdo. Nothing will come off this investigation because it will be biased from the get go but it will be symbolic and will restore the faith of French muslims in their government.
sweep_shot
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Good post. I agree.
Macron has to show better leadership than what he has shown so far.
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Points 3 and 4 are sensible. Hedbo seem like Morons though, if they are asked to do something like this by Macron then they will inevitably try to publicise it and make themselves out to be victims.
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On a hill in Nice's northern quarter lies Roquebilliere, a collection of tower blocks that are home to many of the city's Muslim immigrants.
I was there to meet Said Chatoui, who invited me to join his family as they celebrated the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.
It is of course the perceived insult to Islam and its most revered prophet which is at the centre of the deepening crisis gripping France.
In the stairwell of Said's high rise, a group of young men stared suspiciously at us. The French news media is deeply unpopular among many Muslims here, who accuse them of stoking tensions.
Said assures us we're fine here as long as we're with him - and anyway, they don't mistrust international media quite as vehemently at their own press. Although, I don't think we'll be winning any popularity contests anytime soon.
Said has lived here, in a three-bedroom apartment on the 12th floor, for 26 years.
He introduced us to his wife Saadia, one of their five daughters, Shaima, and three of his five grandchildren.
The retired maintenance technician told me he's deeply concerned for the future here as tensions continue to deepen.
Like the vast majority of France's six million Muslims, Said is horrified by Tuesday's terror attack at the Notre Dame Basilica.
"It's more than sadness," he said.
"Disgust. Anger also, anger at what happened. Anger also because we're not doing what we need to. We're letting people run around who shouldn't be here. They shouldn't be allowed to be free."
As we sipped mint tea and the children drank their orange juice, Said told me that French politicians - in particular the French president - are just as culpable.
Emmanuel Macron, he said, was becoming increasingly hostile towards Islam and that many French Muslims, particularly immigrants, felt besieged.
President Macron 'needs to take responsibility for his words', says Said
"We feel victimised, particularly by the president's announcements, by the government's announcements... at the end of the day some people will feel legitimised to commit acts against Muslims, against mosques."
With France now on its highest state of alert, Said said he feared that other attacks might still follow.
"Macron needs to take responsibility for his words. When you draw caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, you insult two billion Muslims. Who can control that many people?
"And of those two billion Muslims, how many of the young ones are going to be legitimised after Macron's words? Why put fire on fire? He needs to take a step back."
Said accepts there is more that people in his own community could do to help steer younger, more impressionable Muslims away from a path towards extremism.
But he says it's increasingly difficult to connect with those young people.
"In our mosque, we see some young people who don't understand Islam. We used to have the resources to help them but we don't anymore, so these young people are abandoned.
"Closing mosques makes it worse. With them closed, they go to other places where the people are more dangerous, which is totally uncontrollable."
As we left Said's apartment, he thanked us for taking interest in his story. He wants the world to know of the growing groundswell of anger within immigrant communities like his, but has little hope that anything will change for the better anytime soon.
https://news.sky.com/story/french-p...for-growing-tensions-says-muslim-man-12119253
I was there to meet Said Chatoui, who invited me to join his family as they celebrated the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.
It is of course the perceived insult to Islam and its most revered prophet which is at the centre of the deepening crisis gripping France.
In the stairwell of Said's high rise, a group of young men stared suspiciously at us. The French news media is deeply unpopular among many Muslims here, who accuse them of stoking tensions.
Said assures us we're fine here as long as we're with him - and anyway, they don't mistrust international media quite as vehemently at their own press. Although, I don't think we'll be winning any popularity contests anytime soon.
Said has lived here, in a three-bedroom apartment on the 12th floor, for 26 years.
He introduced us to his wife Saadia, one of their five daughters, Shaima, and three of his five grandchildren.
The retired maintenance technician told me he's deeply concerned for the future here as tensions continue to deepen.
Like the vast majority of France's six million Muslims, Said is horrified by Tuesday's terror attack at the Notre Dame Basilica.
"It's more than sadness," he said.
"Disgust. Anger also, anger at what happened. Anger also because we're not doing what we need to. We're letting people run around who shouldn't be here. They shouldn't be allowed to be free."
As we sipped mint tea and the children drank their orange juice, Said told me that French politicians - in particular the French president - are just as culpable.
Emmanuel Macron, he said, was becoming increasingly hostile towards Islam and that many French Muslims, particularly immigrants, felt besieged.
President Macron 'needs to take responsibility for his words', says Said
"We feel victimised, particularly by the president's announcements, by the government's announcements... at the end of the day some people will feel legitimised to commit acts against Muslims, against mosques."
With France now on its highest state of alert, Said said he feared that other attacks might still follow.
"Macron needs to take responsibility for his words. When you draw caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, you insult two billion Muslims. Who can control that many people?
"And of those two billion Muslims, how many of the young ones are going to be legitimised after Macron's words? Why put fire on fire? He needs to take a step back."
Said accepts there is more that people in his own community could do to help steer younger, more impressionable Muslims away from a path towards extremism.
But he says it's increasingly difficult to connect with those young people.
"In our mosque, we see some young people who don't understand Islam. We used to have the resources to help them but we don't anymore, so these young people are abandoned.
"Closing mosques makes it worse. With them closed, they go to other places where the people are more dangerous, which is totally uncontrollable."
As we left Said's apartment, he thanked us for taking interest in his story. He wants the world to know of the growing groundswell of anger within immigrant communities like his, but has little hope that anything will change for the better anytime soon.
https://news.sky.com/story/french-p...for-growing-tensions-says-muslim-man-12119253
Madplayer
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If a government wants something like this to be done, it will be done. They could give them numerous security related, legitimate reasons.
gazza619
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He should quit
WhenSultansBowled
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For starters Macron should stop try to gain political advantage from terrorist attacks. It is insulting to the victims and Muslims world wide.
There are more than 3 million Muslims living in France. He shouldn't insult so many French Muslim citizens by dividing community.
From Macron's latest actions, only terrorists and far right are benefiting. This guy should get his priorities straight.
There are more than 3 million Muslims living in France. He shouldn't insult so many French Muslim citizens by dividing community.
From Macron's latest actions, only terrorists and far right are benefiting. This guy should get his priorities straight.
cricketjoshila
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Well considering how muslim majority nations treat minorities. How much support Erdogan's conversion of Hagia Sophia received here on PP. Anything that French and Macron does will be acceptable.
cricketjoshila
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Considering that the other option is La Pen. You should think again.
cricketjoshila
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His priorities are pretty straight. Preserve French culture, society and nation. Nowhere will a 3million minority will dictate terms to 66 million others.
On this very forum people like you were pontificating to Indians about how they should live in Muslim countries.
French will remain French, they have made a country where muslim immigrants from other countries want to go and settle in. So they should be ready to accept how the French society is.
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What makes you think the Muslims in France are preventing French people from living their own culture? Can you give some examples?
cricketjoshila
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Well the French President has said it.
Cpt. Rishwat
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No he hasn't.
cricketjoshila
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Yes he has talked about muslim separatism.
sweep_shot
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It sounds like you are projecting your BJP viewpoint onto France.
Where did French president say it? Provide a source please.
Last edited:
Cpt. Rishwat
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I don't understand. How is Muslims keeping separate preventing French people from following their own culture?
cricketjoshila
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Bjp seems to have dented your psyche. You keep bringing them.
Anyways this is what the French President said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has announced plans for tougher laws to tackle what he called "Islamist separatism" and defend secular values.
In a keenly awaited speech, Mr Macron said a minority of France's estimated six million Muslims were in danger of forming a "counter-society".
https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-54383173
Cpt. Rishwat
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But you were saying that the 3 million Muslim minority was dictating to 66 million others, in that quote there is no suggestion of that. From that it seems the President is dictating to the minority how to live, not the other way round.
cricketjoshila
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Read the post i replied to.
Cpt. Rishwat
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I did, there's nothing in there about the 3m minority dictating to 66m majority either. I think you should just admit you got it wrong and perhaps emotion stopped you seeing clearly.
cricketjoshila
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Macron also didn't say he approves of those cartoons. Did he?
Cpt. Rishwat
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If he didn't approve of them they wouldn't be projected on govt buildings would they?
cricketjoshila
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Were they projected by the govt?
One may not approve of many things but that may not mean they are illegal.
Cpt. Rishwat
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They were projected on govt buildings. Are you seriously trying to argue that it was done without govt approval?
BreadPakoda
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Shouldn’t go the China way. Dialogue is necessary.
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Good from Macron.
Diffuse the situation.
==
French President Emmanuel Macron says he understands the feelings of Muslims who are shocked by the displaying of cartoons of Prophet Muhammad but added that the “radical Islam” he is trying to fight is a threat to all people, especially Muslims.
Macron’s comments to Al Jazeera, in an exclusive interview to be aired in full on Saturday, come amid heightened tensions between the French government and the Muslim world over the cartoons, which Muslims consider to be blasphemous.
“The caricatures are not a governmental project, but emerged from free and independent newspapers that are not affiliated with the government,” Macron said.
He was referring to the recent republishing of the caricatures by the Charlie Hebdo magazine to mark the opening of the trial for a deadly attack against its staff in 2015 when the Paris-based publication’s cartoons were cited as a reason for the assault.
Macron had defended the “right to blaspheme” under free speech rights at the time of the republication in September, weeks before he prompted backlash from Muslim activists on October 2 when he claimed in a speech that Islam was “in crisis globally” and announced his plan “to reform Islam” in order to make it more compatible with his country’s republican values.
The French president reiterated his stance about the cartoons after a French teacher, who showed the caricatures to his pupils in class during a discussion on free speech, was beheaded by an attacker on October 16. Last week, the depictions were projected on French government buildings.
‘Muslims the first victims’
While Muslims in France have condemned the killing of the teacher, they have also expressed fears of collective punishment amid a government crackdown targeting Islamic organisations and attacks by vigilante groups on mosques.
Meanwhile, Macron’s comments stirred anger across the Muslim world, leading tens of thousands of people – from Pakistan to Bangladesh to the Palestinian territories – to join anti-France protests. As a debate over Islam and freedom of expression deepened in recent weeks, many officials and protesters in Muslim-majority countries issued calls for a boycott of French-made products.
“I think that the reactions came as a result of lies and distortions of my words because people understood that I supported these cartoons,” Macron said.
The prophet is deeply revered by Muslims and any kind of visual depiction is forbidden in Islam. The caricatures in question are seen by them as offensive and Islamophobic because they are perceived to link Islam with “terrorism”.
“I understand the sentiments being expressed and I respect them. But you must understand my role right now, it’s to do two things: to promote calm and also to protect these rights,” Macron said in the interview.
“Today in the world there are people who distort Islam and in the name of this religion that they claim to defend, they kill, they slaughter … today there is violence practised by some extremist movements and individuals in the name of Islam.”
“Of course this is a problem for Islam because Muslims are the first victims,” Macron continued. “More than 80 percent of the victims of terrorism are Muslims, and this is a problem for all of us.”
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said Macron’s comments appeared to be “an attempt at clarifying … where he stands on issues that are of importance to France and the Muslim world”.
“I think the damage is done. But I’m not sure it needs to continue to escalate, because at the end of the day … there is no winner. Europe standing shoulder-to-shoulder against a number of countries in the Muslim world over cultural and religious issues and interpretations of these issues,” Bishara said.
“No one is a winner, and if there are any losers, it will be a lot of the Muslims in Europe. So it is in everyone’s interest if the French president is sincere about contextualising and about backtracking some of the things he said – that he now understands clearly that they were controversial, and he did not mean to criticise Islam as a religion – that should begin to improve the atmosphere between France, Europe, and the Muslim world.”
France was sent into further shock on Thursday when a knife-wielding Tunisian man killed three people at a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice. That same day, a Saudi man stabbed and lightly wounded a security guard at the French consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Leaders of many Muslim countries offered their condolences to France after the Nice attack and expressed their solidarity as they condemned the violence.
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/...nd-independent-news?__twitter_impression=true
Diffuse the situation.
==
French President Emmanuel Macron says he understands the feelings of Muslims who are shocked by the displaying of cartoons of Prophet Muhammad but added that the “radical Islam” he is trying to fight is a threat to all people, especially Muslims.
Macron’s comments to Al Jazeera, in an exclusive interview to be aired in full on Saturday, come amid heightened tensions between the French government and the Muslim world over the cartoons, which Muslims consider to be blasphemous.
“The caricatures are not a governmental project, but emerged from free and independent newspapers that are not affiliated with the government,” Macron said.
He was referring to the recent republishing of the caricatures by the Charlie Hebdo magazine to mark the opening of the trial for a deadly attack against its staff in 2015 when the Paris-based publication’s cartoons were cited as a reason for the assault.
Macron had defended the “right to blaspheme” under free speech rights at the time of the republication in September, weeks before he prompted backlash from Muslim activists on October 2 when he claimed in a speech that Islam was “in crisis globally” and announced his plan “to reform Islam” in order to make it more compatible with his country’s republican values.
The French president reiterated his stance about the cartoons after a French teacher, who showed the caricatures to his pupils in class during a discussion on free speech, was beheaded by an attacker on October 16. Last week, the depictions were projected on French government buildings.
‘Muslims the first victims’
While Muslims in France have condemned the killing of the teacher, they have also expressed fears of collective punishment amid a government crackdown targeting Islamic organisations and attacks by vigilante groups on mosques.
Meanwhile, Macron’s comments stirred anger across the Muslim world, leading tens of thousands of people – from Pakistan to Bangladesh to the Palestinian territories – to join anti-France protests. As a debate over Islam and freedom of expression deepened in recent weeks, many officials and protesters in Muslim-majority countries issued calls for a boycott of French-made products.
“I think that the reactions came as a result of lies and distortions of my words because people understood that I supported these cartoons,” Macron said.
The prophet is deeply revered by Muslims and any kind of visual depiction is forbidden in Islam. The caricatures in question are seen by them as offensive and Islamophobic because they are perceived to link Islam with “terrorism”.
“I understand the sentiments being expressed and I respect them. But you must understand my role right now, it’s to do two things: to promote calm and also to protect these rights,” Macron said in the interview.
“Today in the world there are people who distort Islam and in the name of this religion that they claim to defend, they kill, they slaughter … today there is violence practised by some extremist movements and individuals in the name of Islam.”
“Of course this is a problem for Islam because Muslims are the first victims,” Macron continued. “More than 80 percent of the victims of terrorism are Muslims, and this is a problem for all of us.”
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said Macron’s comments appeared to be “an attempt at clarifying … where he stands on issues that are of importance to France and the Muslim world”.
“I think the damage is done. But I’m not sure it needs to continue to escalate, because at the end of the day … there is no winner. Europe standing shoulder-to-shoulder against a number of countries in the Muslim world over cultural and religious issues and interpretations of these issues,” Bishara said.
“No one is a winner, and if there are any losers, it will be a lot of the Muslims in Europe. So it is in everyone’s interest if the French president is sincere about contextualising and about backtracking some of the things he said – that he now understands clearly that they were controversial, and he did not mean to criticise Islam as a religion – that should begin to improve the atmosphere between France, Europe, and the Muslim world.”
France was sent into further shock on Thursday when a knife-wielding Tunisian man killed three people at a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice. That same day, a Saudi man stabbed and lightly wounded a security guard at the French consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Leaders of many Muslim countries offered their condolences to France after the Nice attack and expressed their solidarity as they condemned the violence.
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/...nd-independent-news?__twitter_impression=true
Madplayer
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The French president has done exactly what i mentioned he needed to do short of ordering an investigation into Charlie hebdo funding. But he has manipulated certain things. He did project cartoons on government buildings so the government did get involved and i believe that is what angered the muslim world most.
Giannis
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Lol this is just damage control, he's not sincere. Muslims need to stop being so soft and falling for emotional manipulation. He said what he wanted to say already. We need to stop praising politicians for issuing a few platitudes.
Technics 1210
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Macron cannot tackle the rise of extremism in France for 3 simple reasons:
1. Austerity is hitting hard in France. (EU, EZ a complete failure).
2. Macron will take instructions from the Rothchilds.
3. A change in law is required to treat all religions equally in France.
1. Austerity is hitting hard in France. (EU, EZ a complete failure).
2. Macron will take instructions from the Rothchilds.
3. A change in law is required to treat all religions equally in France.
globalcitizen
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For gods sake Macron is French president and he knows what is right or wrong.
all you time passers here are way out of those leagues to even discuss how these leaders think. what he is doing is neither damage control nor appeasing anyone, it just that some people blinded by faith have no patience in whatever actions they take
all you time passers here are way out of those leagues to even discuss how these leaders think. what he is doing is neither damage control nor appeasing anyone, it just that some people blinded by faith have no patience in whatever actions they take
Cpt. Rishwat
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Looks like the French haute couture image is taking a bashing in the Muslim world and overpriced designer crap is being dumped fast. Macron's feeble excuse that the cartoons didn't have govt backing won't wash though, because those same obscene images were projected on govt premises. With his approval.
KingKhanWC
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Not much he can do when his country is prob the most extreme and backward nation in western Europe.
He's changed his tune because his comments prob cost millions to many french businesses.
Le Pen could win and I hope she does because this vile woman will quickly send France down the toilet. The French then may concentrate on their country instead of worrying about exporting their freedom of speech to the world.
He's changed his tune because his comments prob cost millions to many french businesses.
Le Pen could win and I hope she does because this vile woman will quickly send France down the toilet. The French then may concentrate on their country instead of worrying about exporting their freedom of speech to the world.
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A prominent United Arab Emirates minister has called on Muslims to accept the stance of French President Emmanuel Macron on his claims about the need for “integration” in Western societies.
“[Muslims] have to listen carefully to what Macron said in his speech. He doesn’t want to isolate Muslims in the West, and he is totally right,” Anwar Gargash, minister of state for foreign affairs, said in an interview on Monday with the German daily Die Welt.
He said Muslims “need to be integrated in a better way” in Western nations.
“The French state has the right to search for ways to achieve this in parallel with combating extremism and societal closure,” he added.
Gargash rejected accusations against the French president that he seeks to exclude Muslims living in France.
The Emirati minister’s statements come amid ongoing protests in the Arab and Muslim world against Macron’s remarks on Islam, in which he accused Muslims of “separatism” and defended publishing the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Following intense boycott campaigns of French products across the Arab and Muslim world, Macron lowered his tone and said he understood the feelings of Muslims over the cartoons.
“I understand the sentiments being expressed and I respect them,” the French president said in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday.
“But you must understand my role right now, it’s to do two things: to promote calm and also to protect these rights,” Macron said.
“I will always defend in my country the freedom to speak, to write, to think, to draw,” he added.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/2/uae-minister-backs-emmanuel-macrons-remarks-on-muslims
“[Muslims] have to listen carefully to what Macron said in his speech. He doesn’t want to isolate Muslims in the West, and he is totally right,” Anwar Gargash, minister of state for foreign affairs, said in an interview on Monday with the German daily Die Welt.
He said Muslims “need to be integrated in a better way” in Western nations.
“The French state has the right to search for ways to achieve this in parallel with combating extremism and societal closure,” he added.
Gargash rejected accusations against the French president that he seeks to exclude Muslims living in France.
The Emirati minister’s statements come amid ongoing protests in the Arab and Muslim world against Macron’s remarks on Islam, in which he accused Muslims of “separatism” and defended publishing the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Following intense boycott campaigns of French products across the Arab and Muslim world, Macron lowered his tone and said he understood the feelings of Muslims over the cartoons.
“I understand the sentiments being expressed and I respect them,” the French president said in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday.
“But you must understand my role right now, it’s to do two things: to promote calm and also to protect these rights,” Macron said.
“I will always defend in my country the freedom to speak, to write, to think, to draw,” he added.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/2/uae-minister-backs-emmanuel-macrons-remarks-on-muslims
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Europe must strengthen its borders after attacks, says Macron
PARIS (Reuters) - Europe must rethink its open-border Schengen area, including a more robust protection of the zone’s external frontiers, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, after a spate of Islamist attacks in France and Austria.
The tighter controls were needed to curb clandestine immigration, said Macron, adding that the criminal gangs illegally trafficking migrants into Europe were often linked to terror networks.
“I am in favour of a deep overhaul of Schengen to re-think its organisation and to strengthen our common border security with a proper border force,” Macron said on a visit to the Franco-Spanish border.
Macron said he would present proposals to European Union partners at a summit in December.
France will rally support before then and hopes Germany will put its name to the plan, a government official said, citing the Netherlands and Austria as other possible allies.
Europe is reeling from two attacks in the past week that involved assailants who moved freely between Schengen member states.
On Oct. 29, a Tunisian man killed three people in a church in Nice. Brahim Aouissaoui had arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa, which lies off North Africa, five weeks earlier. After being transferred to the mainland, Aouissaoui travelled into France by train hours before launching his attack.
The jihadist who killed four people in Vienna on Monday travelled to neighbouring Slovakia in July in an attempt to buy ammunition, Austrian officials said.
Macron said the recent attacks were a warning to Europe that “the terrorist risk is everywhere”.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...rders-after-attacks-says-macron-idUSKBN27L1P0
PARIS (Reuters) - Europe must rethink its open-border Schengen area, including a more robust protection of the zone’s external frontiers, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, after a spate of Islamist attacks in France and Austria.
The tighter controls were needed to curb clandestine immigration, said Macron, adding that the criminal gangs illegally trafficking migrants into Europe were often linked to terror networks.
“I am in favour of a deep overhaul of Schengen to re-think its organisation and to strengthen our common border security with a proper border force,” Macron said on a visit to the Franco-Spanish border.
Macron said he would present proposals to European Union partners at a summit in December.
France will rally support before then and hopes Germany will put its name to the plan, a government official said, citing the Netherlands and Austria as other possible allies.
Europe is reeling from two attacks in the past week that involved assailants who moved freely between Schengen member states.
On Oct. 29, a Tunisian man killed three people in a church in Nice. Brahim Aouissaoui had arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa, which lies off North Africa, five weeks earlier. After being transferred to the mainland, Aouissaoui travelled into France by train hours before launching his attack.
The jihadist who killed four people in Vienna on Monday travelled to neighbouring Slovakia in July in an attempt to buy ammunition, Austrian officials said.
Macron said the recent attacks were a warning to Europe that “the terrorist risk is everywhere”.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...rders-after-attacks-says-macron-idUSKBN27L1P0
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