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The situation in France is escalating at a dire strait. President Macron unveiled draft legislation to combat radical Islamism last week whose ideology it has referred to as enemies of the Republic.
I'm pressed to see the content of the legislation which has been called high-handed by the USA and infuriated the Muslim world led by President Erdogan of Turkey who has called for a boycott of French goods.
French Prime Minister, Jean Castex has stated that “This bill is not a text aimed against religions or against the Muslim religion in particular,” and the French Government has insisted the bill is to promote French secularism as against Islamic extremism.
Interestingly, in other not to expressly offend, the words “Islamic” or “Islamist” do not appear in the legislation, but the government’s intent is clear: to tackle the separate culture of extremist groups holding the laws of Islam as superior to the laws of the Republic.
I find it hazy that a country who has faced 36 Islamic State-inspired terrorist attacks in the last eight years, including two that together killed more than 200 people and more recently, the beheading of a schoolteacher would appeal to sensitivity of the murderous faith.
Islamic States are angry that the bill seeks to conflate Islam, the religion, and Islamism, a political movement. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has rejected any attempt to link Islam and terrorism and denounces the offensive cartoons of the Prophet.
Jordan’s foreign ministry did not criticize Mr. Macron directly but condemned the “continued publication of caricatures of Prophet Muhammad under the pretext of freedom of expression.”
Kuwait’s foreign ministry criticized linking Islam to terrorism, saying it “represents a falsification of reality, insults the teachings of Islam and offends the feelings of Muslims around the world.”
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused Mr. Macron of being divisive and encouraging Islamophobia. In Bangladesh, 40,000 people took part in an anti-France rally in the capital, Dhaka, burning an effigy of Mr. Macron and calling for a boycott of French products.
In fact, there has been calls for the Bangladeshi government to order the French ambassador back to Paris and threats to tear down the French embassy building.
