The clash that French President Emmanuel Macron is leading against Islam is not in favor of world tolerance and peace. This declared enmity against Islam and its Prophet brings to mind the bitterness of the Crusades era centuries ago, which started with a speech made by Pope Urban II in Clermont, France, on 27 November 1095. However, the world today has changed and this dark page of history can no longer be repeated.
The intertwining relationships and coexistence of followers of religions in all countries of the world, including France, make the idea of an explicit global mobilization based on religious and sectarian grounds difficult and complex. Also, the one who recalls religion to launch a war is in fact the first one to burn with it. It is insane for the French authorities to declare war on a divine religion embraced by about 10 million French citizens and more than one billion and 800 million Muslims all over the world.
Despite insistence of the French leaders to continue their support to the offense against the Prophet of Islam, France did not bear the campaign to boycott its products in Arab and Islamic countries; as immediately the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement calling for ending the boycott. Despite the arrogance in drafting the statement and accusing the boycotting Muslims of being an extremist minority, the mere issuance of the statement reflects the power of the Muslim peoples and their ability to punish Macron and harm the French economy.
The attack by Macron and his government against Islam and offending Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) reveals a psychological complex experienced by France, and a state of loss of reason and logic in the face of Muslims. Religions are not a game, and prophets have all respect and holiness; and offending the sanctities and beliefs of Muslim peoples is a crime, not freedom of expression. In France and European countries, criticism of Judaism or the Holocaust is not permitted; and anyone who questions its figures is imprisoned (Roger Garaudy an example). The beheading of the French teacher who displayed the offensive cartoons was not the beginning of such campaign. Rather, it was preceded by statements by French President Macron in which he attacked Islam as a religion and claimed that it was suffering from a crisis, releasing his statements without any stated justification that requires such hostile stance.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin followed Macron, announcing the authorities’ closure of 73 mosques, a private school and a shop since the beginning of this year, under the pretext of “combating extremist Islam”.
This escalation comes in light of a series of racist anti-Muslim laws and measures taken by the French authorities, especially since Nicolas Sarkozy’s rule to crack down on Islam in France, a campaign that increased fiercely with the publication of Charlie Hebdo magazine’s cartoons offending Prophet Mohammad and the French government’s declared support for such fanatical trend.
Loopholes in the official version
The French official narrative still has many loopholes. There is no photo or video to prove a likely relation between the young Chechen to the beheading crime; and the Conflans Sainte Honorine Police’s criminal department officers have not documented any witnesses linking the suspect, who was killed by nine bullets, to the incident that Macron’s government is trying to take as an excuse for the campaign against Muslims.
The police account says that their officers found the victim on the spot, and tried two hundred meters away to arrest a man carrying a knife and threatening them, then they shot him, causing serious injuries that led to his death, and that the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) before he was killed!
The existence of one narrative and the absence of any other source indicates that we are facing a secret operation in all its stages, where there are no witnesses or information; and the suspect was killed despite the police asserting that he was only carrying a knife, which means that he could be arrested easily. As for reporting that he shouted “Allahu Akbar” before he was killed may indicate that he is a Muslim but not necessarily the person that beheaded the French history teacher!
Failure to accept everything declared by the French government is due to previous incidents such as the attacks related to Charlie Hebdo magazine, where the French intelligence was accused of committing the attacks to stir up public opinion for supporting the government in its racist measures against Muslims.
Assuming that the accusation against the suspect is true, does this justify the government’s campaign against Islam as a religion, accusing all French Muslims, and insulting Islam and the Prophet of Islam? The act of the Chechen young man accused of killing the French teacher – if such accusation is true – is only an individual behavior that may have resulted from excessive provocation; that is, it is an isolated incident, and not a criminal agreement by a group, party, or Muslim peoples.
Never has it happened that Muslims in France or overseas declared war on the French or called for beheading them. On the other hand, the French government, led by the head of state, is the one that has declared war against Muslims in France and against Muslims all around the world and supported offending the Prophet of Islam.
And if the beheading of one man justifies France’s war on Muslims, then what about the thousands of Muslim heads cut off by France, which are displayed in Musée de l’Homme (Museum of Man) in Paris to boast of the French history. The mere existence of this museum and the failure to return these heads to their countries to be buried in their homelands in honor of the sanctity of the dead is an inhuman behavior documenting a state of mental illness.
France crisis
The uproar Macron is making is an attempt to rally public opinion behind him, to conceal the crisis facing France, both at home and abroad: at home, where the economic crisis has exacerbated with the spread of the coronavirus, increasing the difficulties facing the government, amid the rise of the opposition led by the Yellow Vest Movement, accusing Macron and his government of corruption!
On the external level, France has suffered successive losses in vital files, which indicates that the French global influence is declining in the face of new changes. First: escalation of the insurgency and revolt in the French colonies in the Sahel and West Africa countries, due to the spread of the state of awareness boosted by the social networking sites and modern media, which appeared clearly in the Mali revolution, posing a threat to the French occupation and the colonial presence in this region.
The second and most important change that threatens French influence abroad is the Turkish rise that expelled France from Libya and constituted an available and preferred alternative to the rest of the Islamic countries under the French occupation wishing to get rid of dependency on France, in addition to the clear rapprochement opportunities between Turkey and the Arab countries in North Africa that are subject to French influence.
The importance of Turkey’s rise comes in its advanced military power, which has achieved supremacy over French armament, especially in the field of smart weapons and generations of drones, which have been tested with amazing success in Idlib, Syria, Libya, and most recently in Azerbaijan. The Turkish weapons have revolutionized conventional war theories, and extremely shocked the French commanders.
The confused and tense French moves reveal the state of anxiety that France is experiencing with the rising power of the Turks; where in every conflict involving Turkey, France appears allied with the other side, as this was evident in the attempts to rally Europe against the agreement between Turkey and the Libyan Government of National Accord, France’s siding with Greece and Cyprus in the file of demarcating the maritime borders with Turkey, despite the fact that France has no connection with the eastern Mediterranean, and despite the fact that the international law is in favor of the Turks Finally; and recently France’s attempts to rally the West against Azerbaijan in its war with Armenia for liberation of its land, only in order to impose sanctions on Turkey!
Popular campaign to boycott and punish France
Because of some Arab rulers who have turned against their religious constants, Macron thought that the road was paved for him to wage war on Islam as a religion, assuming that the Islamic nation is weak; but the French were surprised by the popular reaction that has decided to punish France for insulting their sanctities by boycotting its products and harming its economy.
In fact, the popular boycott has dealt a violent blow to the French economy, where the French Foreign Ministry immediately issued a statement calling for ending the boycott. Despite the arrogance of the wording of the statement, such as demanding to stop the campaign “immediately” and accusing the boycotting Muslims of being “an extremist minority”, the issuance of the statement only two days after the calls for boycotting French products confirms the extent of the pain felt by France.
The French FM statement was followed by a tweet by the French President in Arabic calling for a rational discussion and respect for disagreement in the spirit of peace! Although he started it by saying he was steadfast in his position, writing the tweet in Arabic confirms his feeling of shock at the Islamic popular reaction, which bypassed the corrupt rulers.
Macron has no choice but to apologize to Muslims, and to reverse his detestable statements that are incompatible with freedom of belief and constitute an aggression against the belief of millions of peaceful Muslims who are not part of the French electoral battles and political agendas.
Insulting Islam and its Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) is a reprehensible hate crime that deserves punishment; and the Muslim peoples have decided to boycott the French products, as a start – and what goes around comes around.
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