[ad_1]
One of the symbols of an unusual era that France is going through is a mosque in the Muslim-inhabited area of Pata, northeast of the capital, Paris. The mosque is now closed to look like a corrugated steel warehouse with small windows.
A notice was posted abroad saying that the government had closed the mosque for engaging in “extremist Islamic activities and posting videos on social media targeting teacher Samuel Patty.”
In response to the murder and beheading of history professor Samuel Patty, the French government is cracking down “swift and drastic” against radical Islam. Every day you hear mosque closures, house searches, lots of new investigations, new plans and initiatives that make it hard to remember.
“Fear will now weigh on the other side,” President Emmanuel Macron said two days ago.
120 houses have been registered as indicated by the government. Several organizations and associations have been dissolved accused of propagating extremist Islamic ideology. Strategies are being adopted to block the path to terrorist financing. Additional help is being provided to teachers. At the same time, there is a lot of pressure on social media companies to increase surveillance of post-video photos.
At least 20 people, including members of the French police, have been killed in a series of terrorist attacks during the Macron administration. But such activities of his government had not been seen before.
Why are you taking such a difficult path now?
Jerome Forcoa, director and political analyst for the French public opinion poll IFOP, said that this time the killings were different, with one teacher murdered and another brutally murdered. According to him, that is why the government has become very strict this time.
“We are no longer dealing only with organized jihadist networks,” Forkoa said. “Now we have seen a terrorist whose extremist background has taken root in this country.”
He said: “The government now feels that it is not possible to deal with this terrorism with just law and order. Now they have to deal with social networks, because Tragic has shown with a finger in the eye how these networks are sowing the seeds of hatred among people. The whole system must be changed.
Forkoa said that a third of teachers in a public opinion poll at his institution two years ago said they had chosen the path of “self-censorship” in the classroom to avoid conflict on the issue of secularism. This analyst thinks that the way this government is taking to address this ‘ideological threat’ against French law is correct.
But France also disagrees with the Macron government’s strategy.
Sociologist Lyra Muccheli of Scientific Research after the French National Center believes that President Macron is showing ‘excessive’ activity and that there is a political motive behind it. According to him, Macron is now thinking about the 2022 elections.
“Macron is adding fuel to the fire,” Mucheli said. He wants people not to think that he is one step behind the right or the extreme right. His main objective is to win the 2022 elections. Immigration and security have been his main objectives since the 19th century.
A poll last week found that the majority of people trusted Islam and Marie Law Penn’s anti-immigrant policy to combat terrorism. President McCormack’s main rival in the 18-month elections will be Marie Le Pen.
While President Macron has been able to build an image abroad and garner praise for economic reforms at home, he has failed to build enough trust among people on the issue of internal security. On the other hand, the way his main political opponent, Marie La Pen, continues to propagate Islam as a threat to France’s national identity, is widely believed.
Cultural conflict
Since taking office, Macron has made a conscious effort to maintain a dividing line between security threats and secularism. She has long refrained from commenting on controversial topics like the hijab, burkini or halal food at school.
But the conflict between religion and French political culture is so intense that it is almost impossible to remain silent.
During a hearing at a parliamentary committee in September, a Muslim woman wearing a hijab began to speak and Anne-Kristin Lang, a MP from Macron’s party, left the room. The MP later said: “The heartbeat of our democracy is where I am not willing to accept anyone wearing hijab within that parliament.”
In France, a government employee, such as a teacher or an elected mayor, cannot wear anything in the workplace that expresses their religious beliefs. However, there are no restrictions for ordinary people.
Even then, the debate in France about whether a parent should be able to take their children to school with a hijab on their head, or whether someone in a burqa should be able to go to the beach.
The far right always says that Muslims are being flattered. At the same time, leftists dubbed these debates Islamophobia or Islamophobia. In the midst of these controversies, teacher Samuel Patty was brutally murdered this month over the subject of showing cartoons of the Prophet while teaching freedom of expression in class.
International dimension
The way in which President Macron is reacting to the brutal assassination of teacher Samuel Patty, whether it is popular at home or in the outside world, especially in the Muslim world, is now being discussed and criticized.
There have been protests in Libya, Bangladesh, Gaza and Turkey. The war of words with Turkey has escalated. Some Muslim countries, including Turkey, are calling for a boycott of French products.
Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan questioned the French president’s statements that “France has never stopped drawing cartoons.” In protest, France summoned its ambassador from Turkey.
But France and Turkey have a long history of animosity. Disputes between the two countries have been intensified by arms embargoes in Libya, gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean and Turkey’s military campaign against Kurdish militias in Syria.
Now, the way Macron is responding to the murder of a teacher has added a new dimension to the conflict between the two countries. Along with politics and foreign policy, religion has now been added.
Source: BBC
[ad_2]
