French President Emmanuel Macron has drawn criticism from the Muslim community for describing their faith as a religion “in crisis” all over the world.
Macron made the remark in a nationally televised speech while announcing his government’s intention to introduce a bill, this December, to strengthen French laws on the separation between church and state.
Macron said the law would ban all symbols of faith from schools and the public service sector, claiming that by doing so, France would be more united under secularism ideals and radicalization in the French Muslim community would reduce.
Religious wear such as the hijab and burka are already banned in schools and for public servants. The bill simply expands the list of banned items and places they’ll be prohibited.
“Secularism is the cement of a united France,” Macron said.
A majority of the backlash Macron drew came when he indirectly equated Islam as a religion of extremists and radicals that he needs “liberate.”
French Muslim activists, such as Miqdaad Versi, were quick to call out the 42-year-old president for his choice of words, saying, “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.”
Others even went on to suggest Macron was Islamophobic.
“Macron no longer hiding his feelings about Islam. No longer radical Islam, now it’s just Islam that is the problem,” one activist said on Twitter.
Even prominent French academic Rim-Sarah Alaoune weighed in on the matter saying “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.”
By: Niza Nondo
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