"France is not fighting against Islam", replies Emmanuel Macron, who considers himself questioned by the "Financial Times...
"France is not fighting against Islam", replies Emmanuel
Macron, who considers himself questioned by the "Financial Times"
In a letter to the British daily,
the French president is outraged by an article in which he says he is “accused
of stigmatizing French Muslims for electoral purposes”.
The French President, Emmanuel Macron, published, Wednesday evening
November 4 in the prestigious British daily Financial Times, a column to
explain that "France is fighting against Islamist separatism, never
against Islam", in response to an article published Monday but since
removed from the site.
In a long letter to the editor, also published on the Elysee
website, the President of the Republic is indignant at an article in which he
says he is "accused of stigmatizing French Muslims for electoral purposes;
worse, to maintain a climate of fear and suspicion towards them ". The
head of state considers his words to have been distorted:
“I will not let anyone say that France, its state, cultivates
racism against Muslims. "
As on the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera last week, the French president
wants to explain, beyond the borders of France, that his fight against
"Islamist separatism" is not a fight against Islam, while the Muslims
in several countries reacted angrily to his comments, calling for a boycott of
French products.
"Hatred of the Republic"
After recalling the series of attacks that have struck France since
the Charlie Hebdo massacre in 2015 and left 300 dead, Mr. Macron explains that
France is under attack for its values, secularism, freedom of expression, and
that it "will not yield anything".
But he also exposes in detail the cases of Islamist “separatism”,
according to him “breeding ground (…) [of] terrorist vocations”. He thus evokes
"hundreds of radicalized individuals who are feared, at any time, that
they will take a knife and go and kill the French".
“In some neighborhoods as well as on the Internet, groups linked to
radical Islam are teaching children in France to hate the Republic and call for
disrespecting the laws. "
" You do not believe me ? Read again the exchanges, the calls
to hatred disseminated in the name of a misguided Islam, on the social networks
which finally led to the death of Professor Samuel Paty a few days ago. Go and
visit the neighborhoods where little girls of 3 or 4 years old wear the full
veil ”and“ [are] brought up in a project of hatred for the values of France,
”he says.
"This is what France intends to fight against today", but
"never against Islam". “Against obscurantism, fanaticism, violent
extremism. Never against a religion. We say: “not with us!” », He adds.
"It is our strictest right as a sovereign nation,"
"we don't need newspaper articles to seek to divide us," he
concludes.
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