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One of the symbols of the unusual times that France is going through is a mosque in the Muslim-populated area of Panta, 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 stating 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. Mosques have been closed, houses have been searched, lots and lots of new investigations, and every day you hear new plans and measures that are difficult to remember. “Fear will now take hold of the other side,” President Emmanuel Macron said two days ago.
120 houses have been registered as mandated by the government. Various organizations and associations have been dissolved over accusations of extremist Islamic teachings. 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 police officers, have been killed in a series of terrorist attacks in France 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 of the French public opinion polling agency IFOP and a political analyst, told the BBC that this time the murder was different: a teacher had been murdered and murdered in a “brutal” manner. According to him, that is why the government is very strict this time. “We are no longer dealing only with organized jihadist networks,” he said. Now we have seen a terrorist whose radical initiation has taken place in this country.
He said the government now feels that it is not possible to tackle terrorism with law and order alone. 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 needs to be changed.
Forkoa said that two and a half years ago, in a public opinion poll at his institution, a third of teachers said they had chosen the path of ‘self-censorship’ in the classroom to avoid conflict over 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 there are also differences in France over 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 2020 elections. Macron is throwing ghee on the fire, he 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 public opinion poll conducted last week found that the majority of people trusted Islam and Marie Law Penn’s anti-immigrant policy for the fight against terrorism. President Macron’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, many believe that his main political opponent, Marie Le Pen, continues to spread Islam as a threat to France’s national identity.
Cultural conflict
Since taking power, Macron has made conscious efforts 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 in hijab began to speak, and Macron’s MP Anne-Kristin Lang left the room. The MP said later: I am not willing to accept.
In France, a public servant, such as a teacher or an elected mayor, cannot wear or wear anything in the workplace that expresses their religious beliefs. However, there are no restrictions for ordinary people. Even then, the debate in France has never stopped over whether a parent should be able to take their children to school with a hijab on their head, or whether someone should be able to go to the beach in a burkini.
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 that 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 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.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has questioned Macron’s mental health, saying last week that he had “never stopped drawing cartoons” in the context of France’s secular politics. 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. Religion has now been added along with politics and foreign policy.
Source: BBC Bangla.
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