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The backlash against Emmanuel Macron after his insistence that publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad is critical to freedom of expression has spread, with angry international protests, cyber attacks on French websites, and warnings that the president’s response is “reckless.” .
Muslims in France, and elsewhere, are also furious at what they say is a harsh government crackdown on their communities in the wake of the murder 11 days ago of high school teacher Samuel Paty.
The French interior minister, who has overseen raids against Islamic organizations and individuals in the last week, and has even criticized supermarkets for their separate halal and kosher sections, defended the police actions and insisted that France was seeking to crack down on extremism.
“We seek to fight an ideology, not a religion. I think the vast majority of French Muslims are well aware that they are the first to be affected by the ideological drift of radical Islam, “Darmanin told Libération.
In the aftermath of Macron’s declaration that France would not “renounce cartoons,” Iran summoned a French diplomat to inform them that Paris’s response to the assassination was “reckless.”
A state television report claimed that an Iranian Foreign Ministry official in Tehran had accused France of fomenting hatred against Islam under the guise of freedom of expression.
A powerful association of clerics in the Iranian city of Qom also urged the country’s government to condemn Macron’s comments and called on Islamic nations to impose political and economic sanctions on France. A hardline Iranian newspaper portrayed the French president as the devil, portraying him as Satan in a cartoon on its front page.
In Saudi Arabia, the country’s state press agency quoted an anonymous foreign ministry official as saying that the kingdom “rejects any attempt to link Islam and terrorism, and denounces offensive cartoons of the prophet.”
In Bangladesh, some 40,000 people took part in a demonstration against France in the capital Dhaka, burning an effigy of Macron and calling for a boycott of French products. The rally was organized by Islami Andolan Bangladesh (IAB), one of the largest Islamist parties in the country. There were also calls on the Bangladeshi government to order the French ambassador to return to Paris and threats to tear down the French embassy building.
In France, Macron’s centrist government faces criticism for its response to the murder of Paty by Abdoullakh Anzorov, 18, a Chechen national who has lived in France since the age of six, after the teacher showed one of his high school classes a series of cartoons, including one. of the Prophet Muhammad, during a lesson on freedom of expression.
After his death, the French police raided dozens of suspected Islamist groups and individuals accused of extremism. Darmanin said the raids, authorized by a judge, were aimed at “sending a message” and told Libération that the searches had uncovered “weapons and videos of beheadings.”
Darmanin has also announced his intention to dissolve high-profile Muslim organizations, including the Collective for the Fight Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) and BarakaCity, a humanitarian organization that has carried out projects in Togo, Southeast Asia and Pakistan.
Darmanin said the CCIF was implicated in Paty’s murder, as a video posted on Facebook implicated him in what he described as a “fatwa” against the history teacher.
“It is an Islamist team that does not condemn the attacks… that has invited radical Islamists. It is an agency against the republic. It considers that there is a state Islamophobia while it is being subsidized (financially) by the French state. And I think it is time that we stop being naive with these outfits in our territory, “he told Libération.
The minister also defended his criticism of supermarkets that operated special sections for halal or kosher food, saying they led to “communitarianism” and “separation” and declared that the “harassment” of radical Islamism was a “national priority”.
Following Paty’s murder, police sources told French media that authorities were prepared to deport 213 foreigners included on a government watch list for allegedly having extreme religious beliefs.
There have been calls from various Islamic countries to boycott French products and protests across the Islamic world, including Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Gaza.
On Tuesday, Le Figaro reported that Islamic hackers had taken over several French websites, leaving the message: “Those who mistreat the messenger of Allah must be punished.” Certain groups have called for an “apocalypse” to be brought down on the French web and have asked other hackers to target French web sites. Similar attacks, described by French officials as a “cyberjihad,” occurred after the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack, in which 12 people were killed by Islamist terrorists.
The Muslim advocacy group Cage, a London-based NGO, called on the French government to “end its campaign of hostility towards those who perform their duties legally.”
“The Interior Minister publicly admitted that dozens of people not linked to any criminal investigation were raided in order to simply send a message to Muslims in France. This extraordinary claim highlights that the police and other branches of government have been politicized to intimidate Muslim citizens who would otherwise be innocent, ”he wrote in an open letter.
