Macron’s anti-Islam comments unleash backlash from Muslim activists

French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments on the denunciation of Islam and in defense of secularism have drawn widespread backlash from Muslim activists and advocates of the noble religion.

In a televised address on Friday, Macron unveiled a plan to defend France’s secular values against what he labeled as “Islamist radicalism” and claimed that the religion was “in crisis” all over the world.

Macron underlined that “no concessions” would be made in a new drive to eliminate religion from education and the public sector in the country.

The French president also said his government would present a bill in December that would strengthen the country’s 1905 law that officially separated religion and state.

Following the speech, activists took to Twitter to condemn the remarks.

Yasser Louati, a French Muslim activist, said in a tweet that “the repression of Muslims has been a threat, now it is a promise."

The repression of Muslims has been a threat, now it is a promise. In a one hour speech #Macron burried #laïcité, emboldened the far right, anti-Muslim leftists and threatened the lives of Muslim students by calling for drastic limits on home schooling despite a global pandemic.

— Yasser Louati (@yasserlouati) October 2, 2020

Rim-Sarah Alaoune, a French academic, tweeted that his remarks are "so dumb."

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.

— Rim-Sarah Alouane (@RimSarah) October 2, 2020

Iyad el-Baghdadi, Norway-based writer and activist, used expletives and simply wrote on Twitter, “F*** you, @EmmanuelMacron.”

Macron no longer hiding his feelings about Islam. No longer radical Islam, now it’s just Islam that is the problem https://t.co/ljRK3LuNMM

— Bruno Maçães (@MacaesBruno) October 2, 2020

Macron’s comments came less than a month after Muslim protesters censured Charlie Hebdo, a French weekly satirical magazine, for its recent reprinting of blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Pakistanis slam Charlie Hebdo reprint of blasphemous cartoons

The French satirical paper has been under fire for its move to republish blasphemy.

More than a dozen staff at Charlie Hebdo were killed in January 2015 by armed gunmen. The murder was blamed on Muslims for what was claimed to be a revenge for sacrilegious cartoons that condemned Islam.

This is while members of the Muslim community in France and elsewhere in the world have consistently denounced such brutal acts, describing them as going against the precepts of their religion.

Anti-Muslim sentiments have been on the rise across Europe in recent years in the wake of terrorist attacks in the continent. The attacks were carried out by the Daesh sympathizers or the terror group’s members who had returned home following their defeat in Iraq and Syria.

Protesters rally in Sweden to condemn burning of Holy Qur'an

Hundreds of demonstrators have staged a rally in southern Sweden to voice their anger about anti-Muslim practices and blatant acts of sacrilege by far-right extremists in the country.

Muslim leaders in Europe and around the world have reiterated their unequivocal condemnation of the terrorist attacks.

Moreover, the rise of far-right ideology and the propagation of anti-immigration policies have exacerbated the status of religious minorities in Europe.

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