Accused of 'systematically' targeting Muslims, Macron launches re-election bid

French President Emmanuel Macron has been indicted for systematically targeting the country’s minority Muslim population with an array of Islamophobic policies.

A new report by British advocacy group Cage points to Macron's use of executive powers to craft what it calls a "systematic obstruction" policy to target Muslim groups and institutions in France. 

The policy, which gives the state "vast powers to monitor and close institutions, unilaterally dissolve organizations and seize money under the pretence of preserving Republican values and combating Islamism and/or separatism”, has been used to single out Muslim organizations, the report notes.

Cage, which works to empower communities impacted by the so-called “war on terror” and campaigns against wrongful state policies, released the report at a press conference in Paris on Wednesday and called for the immediate repeal of such powers. 

The group said the systematic obstruction policy was used by French authorities to justify the closure of at least a dozen mosques, hundreds of Muslim-owned businesses and charities, and the seizure of millions of euros worth of assets. 

Rayan Freschi, a French legal jurist who has co-authored the report, said it exposes how Islamophobia has been "institutionalized through an infrastructure of enforcement and mass surveillance”.

"Four years ago, the French government initiated a secretive and draconian Islamophobic policy," Freschi said in a statement, referring to the policy.

French officials take new Islamophobic actions

French officials have announced that they will shut down an activist-run media outlet and a Muslim website that contradicted “nationwide values,” the latest in a series of actions violating democratic freedoms.

"This report documents how the French state has swiftly dismantled the foundations of the Muslim community's autonomy through a calculated persecution, spreading terror among an entire religious community: 718 closures, 24,884 inspections and 46 million euros extorted by the state later, it is time to stop this witch hunt against Muslims," the statement further noted.

Among the organizations closed for allegedly promoting “Islamist propaganda” were the French Muslim charity Barakacity and the non-profit Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), which monitor Islamophobic attacks throughout France.

Both organizations have fiercely denied such charges but both remain dissolved. 

Barakacity’s President Idriss Sihamedi insisted in a statement that Macron's policies were designed to make French Muslims compliant with the state.

"France has decided to target community leaders and has put every kind of pressure imaginable on people who want to defend Muslims,” Sihamedi asserted.

"The message to French Muslims is: We are going to colonize your religion and Islam in France will be controlled by the interior ministry," he added.

The controversial policy is implemented by France’s executive branch, whose function is to enforce the law and establish public policies. 

French policy operates, according to Cage, by putting maximum pressure on Muslim groups via the establishment of "department cells" in each of France's 101 government departments.

French government documents mention that the department cells aim to "coordinate the action of all actors likely to contribute to the fight against Islamism and community withdrawal." 

Drafted in 2017, the policies initially aimed to address why foreign fighters had fled to Syria and Iraq from particular regions in France. They then morphed into a nationwide project aimed at addressing "Islamism" and "community withdrawal" across the country. 

Since then, France has introduced a series of controversial laws that several human rights groups have censured as Islamophobic - including the anti-separatism law and the Imam Charter. 

Islamophobia in France: Another mosque ordered closed in Paris

France has ordered the suspension of a mosque for six months over what the government has called inciting “violence” and “hatred.”

Macron announces presidential re-run bid

The development came as Macron on Thursday announced a fresh bid for the presidency in the country’s April election, seeking a mandate to steer France through the fallout of the Ukraine conflict and the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

He announced the bid in a letter published by several regional newspapers.

"We have not achieved everything we set out to do. There are choices that, with the experience I have gained from you, I would probably make differently," Macron wrote, listing the different crises he faced over the past five years.

He defended his track record by pointing to unemployment at a 15-year low, claiming that he was running again “to defend our values that the world's disorders are threatening."

If Macron succeeds, he would become the first French leader in two decades to win a second term in office.

Voter surveys, meanwhile, have shown a bounce in support for Macron as far-right leaders Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour revise their views on ties with Moscow amid an outpouring of sympathy for Ukrainian refugees.

However, in a sign that identity politics could rear its head again in the final stretch of the campaign, Zemmour, a former TV commentator known for his inflammatory anti-immigrant views, in a reply to Macron's letter said the leader was hostile to the values of Zemmour and his supporters.

"Emmanuel Macron spent the past five years fighting the France of our childhood. He hates our identity. We cherish it and want to transmit it to our children," Zemmour said.

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