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METERaybe knew what he was doing. Maybe he didn’t. Either way, Emmanuel Macron put France and Europe on a new collision course with the Islamic world last month, all in the name of freedom. Last week’s series of deadly terror attacks suggests that the French president may have started something that he cannot finish.
Macron’s passionate speech on October 2, in which he vowed to fight “radical Islamism,” eradicate “separatism” and uphold secular values at all costs, heralded this latest crisis. At the time, it was seen as a primarily national political exercise, aimed at firing the guns of France’s far-right ahead of its 2022 election campaign.
But Muslim leaders were infuriated by Macron’s description of Islam as a faith “in crisis around the world” that had, in fact, been hijacked by extremists. Then two weeks later, after the murder of a Paris school teacher, Samuel Paty, by a foreign-born Islamist, an unflappable Macron doubled down. His defense of the notorious, recently reissued Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which Paty had shown to students, and a nationwide crackdown on mosques, imams, and Islamic groups added fuel to the fire. France itself was “under attack,” declared Macron dramatically, a phrase he repeated on Thursday.
Political and religious leaders from Bangladesh to Jordan and anti-French protesters publicly expressed their fury, accusing him of doing “the work of Satan.” Much of what he said was purposely misinterpreted or distorted. The truth was also a casualty.
Yet the fact remained: By vigorously and uncompromisingly defending French values, Macron had succeeded in outraging Muslim public opinion and seemingly simultaneously energizing extremists.
The immediate and grim result, which will justly or unjustly be presented to your doorstep, was a series of attacks in Nice, Avignon and Saudi Arabia. France, struggling to contain a worsening Covid pandemic, is now on its highest terrorism alert, with schools and churches under armed surveillance.
Macron cannot be blamed for upholding the post-Enlightenment French ideal of an egalitarian, integrated, secular and republican society. But he and other European leaders now face a possibly powerful Islamophobic and anti-Muslim backlash that could lead to even more bloodshed.
This sudden explosion of violence and recrimination potentially affects everyone. All governments in Europe run the risk of falling into ever deeper polarization, with obvious implications for peace, security and social cohesion.
Like the National Rally of France (formerly National Front), the German, Italian and far-right populist, Islamophobic and anti-immigrant parties, whose public support has been on the decline of late, must be licking their lips. Muslim leaders like Imran Khan of Pakistan have seized on the issue to deflect anger at their own failures.
Macron’s critics will say this is what comes from having an imperious president in a hurry, pushing to take the reins of European leadership. Macron wants to turn the EU into a more powerful and independent bloc that defends itself against the United States, China and Islam. But the price of his neo-Gaullist European vision continues to rise.
Meanwhile, Europe’s most determined rivals have seen an opportunity. Chief among them is Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey. He suggested that Macron was mentally unbalanced. “Our story is that of a battle against tyranny and fanaticism,” Macron replied via Twitter. There are no awards for which tyrant and fanatic spoke.
Erdogan is an authoritarian and deeply obnoxious Islamic nationalist. But in one respect, he and Macron are the same. Erdogan also presents himself as a pan-regional leader, as a tutor and defender of the Sunni Muslim world. This ambition was symbolized by his provocative redesign of Istanbul’s old cathedral, Hagia Sophia, as a mosque.
Forget Trump v Biden: Erdoğan v Macron is the heavyweight fight of the year. The two have already passed several rounds of punishment for disputed gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean, Libya, Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh. At Macron’s urging, the December EU summit will discuss sanctions on Turkey.
However, the conflicting ideas and geopolitical rivalries of two men do not explain the depth and breadth of the fury of the Muslim world. That is due to the dismay felt by the overwhelming nonviolent Muslim majority over entrenched European Islamophobia, racial discrimination, cultural insensitivity and ruthless migration policies.
Further afield, perceived French neo-colonialism in the Sahel and apparent Western indifference to the endless horrors in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Xinjiang fuel the tensions. ]F For many Muslims, the projection of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad on the walls of various French cities after Paty’s death was intolerable. However, so was the attack on a church in Nice. On both sides, lack of respect is a big part of the problem.
]The destructive impact of Covid-19 has further enraged tempers, putting governments and citizens around the world under pressure. Into this giant trap, Macron has jumped feet first, increasing, not reducing, misunderstandings in a time of extreme stress.
A Pew Research survey last year found that a solid majority of people in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden have positive views of Muslims in their country. In Italy and southern and eastern Europe, there is more negativity. Although far-right populist parties continue to exploit fears about identity and immigration, especially among people with less education and older people, and although recorded incidents of Islamophobia have increased, overall tensions have decreased compared to five years ago. years.
On the other hand, French policy that demands assimilation into a prescriptively “secular” society, as opposed to British-style laissez-faire multiculturalism, seems too rigid. Macron should rethink how it is applied.
It is clear that the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe remains fragile. The danger is obvious. Will the bitter furor over Macron’s justified but clumsy defense of French values, the perception that Islam is under attack, and the resulting terror drive Europe into a new spiral of downward confrontation? Hopefully not.
