Thread: A few people, understandably, are concerned clip of Darmanin and Le Pen has been taken out of context. It's not an issue solely facing France, just look at UK for starters, but the mainstreaming of Islamophobia is undeniably growing with Macron's government. 1/

Too many people are prepared to persecute majority of a religion for actions of a minority. It's no different from those who perpetuate anti-Semitism because they don't like Israel. There will always be those who want to blame something larger than the individuals concerned. 2/

Whether your particular brand of cultish tribalism is unswerving loyalty to one individual, one party, one state, it has the same effect. You can't ignore flaws in your own "side" if you hope to challenge the flaws in others, and that includes Islamophobia, anti-Semitism etc 3/

Of course there is an issue of Islamic extremists, just like there is an issue with far-right extremists. Indeed, look around the world and for pretty much every religion or political identity there will be a minority who have been radicalised. 4/

That can't be an excuse to punish all those just living their lives. Islam is no more or less violent than majority of the world's religions. Religion doesn't kill people, extremists do and it's long passed time people, and particularly governments, stopped conflating the two. 5/