Macron – Faith Matters

Pakistan’s government reaches deal with Islamists to end protest

Faith Matters — Sun, 31 Oct 2021 17:45:06 +0000

Pakistan’s government and an outlawed radical Islamist party reached an agreement to end a 10-day long, and at times deadly violent, rally calling for the closure of France’s embassy and the release of the party’s leader.

Neither foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi nor religious leader Mufti Muneebur Rehman, who took part in the talks, gave any details of the agreement at a news conference in the capital Islamabad.

Thousands of supporters of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Labiak Pakistan party marched from Lahore on October 22 toward the capital Islamabad.

They demanded the expulsion of France’s envoy to Pakistan over publication of caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed in France.

The protest march saw supporters clash with police at several points along the way.

At least seven police officers and four demonstrators were killed.

“Details and positive results of the agreement will come before the nation in a week or so,” said Mr Rehman, who said he had the endorsement of TLP party leader Saad Rizvi.

The violence erupted a day after the government of prime minister Imran Khan said it would not accept the Islamists’ demand to close the French Embassy and expel the French envoy.

It was not immediately clear on Sunday when the party would end its rally.

Thousands of supporters halted their march in Wazirabad, about 115 miles from the capital on Friday after roads and bridges ahead of them were blocked.

Paramilitary rangers were deployed to stop the protesters from continuing toward the capital.

Sajid Saifi, TLP spokesman, said supporters were ready to “pack up” but were awaiting instructions from the party’s leadership.

He said he hoped party leader Mr Rizvi and all the supporters arrested in recent days would be released soon.

Besides demanding expulsion of the French ambassador, the TLP was also pressing for the release of its leader, Mr Rizvi, who was arrested last year for inciting supporters to stage an anti-France protest.

Mr Rizvi’s party started demanding the expulsion of a French envoy in October 2020 after French President Emmanuel Macron tried to defend caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed as freedom of expression.

Mr Macron’s comments came after a young Muslim beheaded a French school teacher who had shown the caricatures in class.

The images were republished by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to mark the opening of the trial over the deadly 2015 attack against the publication for the original caricatures.

Mr Rizvi’s party gained prominence in Pakistan’s 2018 elections, campaigning on the single issue of defending the country’s blasphemy law, which calls for the death penalty for anyone who insults Islam.

New arrest by French investigators probing church attack in Nice

Faith Matters — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 14:29:39 +0000

Detectives investigating an attack by a Tunisian man who killed three people in a Nice church have a second suspect in custody, as France heightens its security alert amid religious and geopolitical tensions around cartoons mocking the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.

Tunisian anti-terrorism authorities have opened an investigation into an online claim that the attack was staged by a previously unknown Tunisian extremist group.

Muslims held more anti-France protests across the Middle East and beyond on Friday, while mourners placed flowers, messages and candles at the entrance to the Notre Dame Basilica in the French Riviera city where Thursday’s knife attack took place.

The attacker, Ibrahim Issaoui, was seriously wounded by police and taken to hospital in life-threatening condition, authorities said. Anti-terrorism prosecutors in France and Tunisia are investigating.

The new suspect is a 47-year-old man believed to have been in contact with the attacker the night before the attack, according to a judicial official.

A substitute prosecutor at the Tunisian anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office, Mohsen Dali, told the Associated Press a claim of responsibility came in an online post saying the attack was staged by a group called Al Mehdi of Southern Tunisia, previously unknown to Tunisian authorities.

The victims included 55-year-old Vincent Loques, a father of two who was the church’s sacristan, in charge of its holy objects, according to local broadcaster France-Bleu.

Another was a 44-year-old mother of three from Brazil named Simone who had studied cooking in Nice and helped poor communities, France-Bleu said.

In an interview broadcast on Friday with Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV, the attacker’s mother said she was shocked by the events.

She said she was surprised to hear her son was in France and had no idea what he was planning. “You don’t know the French language, you don’t know anyone there, you’re going to live alone there, why, why did you go there?” she said she told him over the phone when he arrived.

His brother told Al-Arabiya that Issaoui had informed the family he would sleep in front of the church, and sent them a photograph showing him at the cathedral. “He didn’t tell me anything,” he said.

A neighbour said he knew the assailant when he was a mechanic and held various other odd jobs, and had shown no signs of radicalisation.

France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor said the suspect is a Tunisian born in 1999 who reached the Italian island of Lampedusa, a key landing point for migrants crossing in boats from North Africa, on September 20, and travelled to Bari, a port city in southern Italy, on October 9. It is not clear when he arrived in Nice.

Tunisians fleeing a virus-battered economy make up the largest contingent of migrants landing in Italy this year. Italian media reported that from Lampedusa, where Issaoui was one of 1,300 arriving migrants on September 20, he was placed with 800 others on a virus quarantine boat in Puglia.

After the two-week quarantine, he received a notice that he was being expelled from Italy for illegal entry and was given seven days to leave the country, according to Milan daily Corriere della Sera.

Italy’s interior minister confirmed the suspect was ordered to leave Italy on October 9. Luciana Lamorgese said he was not flagged by either Tunisian authorities or intelligence agencies.

The attack was the third in less than two months that French authorities have attributed to Muslim extremists, including the beheading of a teacher who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class after the images were re-published by satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

The images deeply offended many Muslims, and protesters burned French flags, stomped on portraits of President Emmanuel Macron and called for boycotts of French products at demonstrations in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

Mr Macron said he would immediately increase the number of soldiers deployed to protect French schools and religious sites from around 3,000 to 7,000. Schools remain open during a nationwide lockdown that started on Friday to stem the spread of coronavirus, but religious services are cancelled.

Nice imam Otmane Aissaoui condemned the “terrible act of terror, of savagery, of human insanity that plunges us into sadness, shock and pain” which had again put French Muslims in the spotlight.

The attacker “hit brothers and sisters who were praying to their lord”, he told the Associated Press. “It’s as if a mosque was touched… I am deeply Christian today.”

French leader decries terrorist attack against teacher

French leader decries Islamist terror attack against teacher

Faith Matters — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 22:14:57 +0000

French President Emmanuel Macron has denounced what he called an “Islamist terrorist attack” against a history teacher decapitated in a Paris suburb.

The teacher had discussed caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed with his class, authorities said. The suspected attacker was shot by police after Friday’s beheading.

The French anti-terrorism prosecutor opened an investigation concerning murder with a suspected terrorist motive, the prosecutor’s office said.

President Macron visited the school where the teacher worked in the town of Conflans-Saint-Honorine and met with staff after the killing.

An Associated Press reporter saw three ambulances arrive at the scene, and heavily armed police surrounding the area and police vans lining leafy nearby streets.

“One of our compatriots was murdered today because he taught… the freedom of expression, the freedom to believe or not believe,” President Macron said.

He said the attack should not divide France because that is what the extremists want.

“We must stand all together as citizens,” he said.

The gruesome killing of the teacher occurred in the town of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine while the suspect was killed by police in adjoining Eragny.

A police official said the suspect, armed with a knife and an airsoft gun — which fires plastic pellets — was shot dead about 600 metres from where the male teacher was killed after he failed to respond to orders to put down his arms, and acted in a threatening manner.

The teacher had received threats after opening a discussion “for a debate” about the caricatures about 10 days ago, the police official told The Associated Press.

The parent of a student had filed a complaint against the teacher, another police official said, adding that the suspected killer did not have a child at the school. The suspect’s identity was not made public.

The suspect’s identity was not made public. French media reported that the suspect was an 18-year-old Chechen, born in Moscow. That information could not be immediately confirmed.

The two officials could not be named because they were not authorised to discuss ongoing investigations.

“We didn’t see this coming,” Conflans resident Remi Tell said on CNews TV station. He described the town as peaceful.

It was the second terrorism-related incident since the opening of an ongoing trial on the newsroom massacre in January 2015 at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo after the publication of caricatures of the prophet of Islam.

As the trial opened, the paper republished caricatures of the prophet to underscore the right of freedom of expression. Exactly three weeks ago, a young man from Pakistan was arrested after stabbing, outside the newspaper’s former offices, two people who suffered non life-threatening injuries. The 18-year-old told police he was upset about the publication of the caricatures.

French Muslims Want to Be Like Anyone Else, Just Not Victims

Faith Matters — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 21:57:15 +0000

We have spent a week in France meeting with key organisations and with people who understand how poisonous the tentacles of Islamist extremism have been and how they have also given rise to greater feelings of anti-Muslim hatred, which have been fuelled by a number of factors. We have spoken to Muslims who see the victim narrative pumped into French Muslims who have suffered anti-Muslim hate incidents and to those who have had their fears expanded because of the perpetual victim narrative that Islamist groups in the country have been promoting.

What is happening in France is troubling. It is troubling since the State is grappling with extremism, disaffection within parts of its population, anti-migrant attitudes and a hardening of political stances to groups who talk about discrimination. Yet, there is another issue that is layered on top of this and it includes Islamist groups who talk about Islamophobia as if there is a perpetual battle between Muslims and the State. They take a ‘them and us’ approach which is constantly filtered into discussions and talks at a local level and the impression that Muslims come away with after listening to such groups is that they are being targeted for persecution by the State. This thinking and the re-enforcement of the belief that Muslims are being persecuted by the State, does the following. It re-enforces just the Muslim identity within those who accept this toxic message and it further alienates and marginalises them mentally to their surroundings and to those who are non-Muslim.

This is not to take away from the state of emergency laws that were enacted in France after the massive terrorist attacks in Paris and which went on for two years, finally to be lifted in late 2017. There were real issues of infringements on civil liberties and life for some French Muslims is further complicated by abuse and racism. However, instead of raising the morale of French Muslims with hope, French Muslims are fed a diet of ‘raging Islamophobia’, a French State that does not care for them and a sense of being embattled that all plays into the hands of radicalisers. What women can and can’t wear is naturally a campaigning point for these groups, as is Islamophobia, something that we would term, anti-Muslim hate. Yet, the very defence of freedoms that these groups cite, they will not be willing to defend if, for example, a gay Muslim wanted to join them and speak about Islam openly. Or, if an Ahmadi Muslim wanted their open support, or if an ex-Muslim called for solidarity with them. Then these freedoms become a ‘pick and mix’ approach, something that shows how such groups discard democracy as soon as it does not suit them.

France is in a complex and difficult place, though President Macron has made some really bold moves. The first of these is to reach out into the banlieues of France to try and reverse some of the deep unemployment and disaffection that is felt in these areas. He also has spoken of tackling the ‘slow burn of Islamist extremism’

France’s democratic values should not be at odds with Muslims. But with Islamists in the ascendance in Muslim communities in France, there is a risk that the very values that France defends, may become the ones that are attacked in the future.

Britain, France to join forces to combat online extremism – May

Faith Matters — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 00:24:05 +0000

Britain and France will join forces to press companies to do more to tackle online extremism, Prime Minister Theresa May will say on Tuesday, her first foreign trip since her Conservative Party lost its majority in a parliamentary election.

After winning support from the Conservatives to stay on as prime minister after Thursday’s election, May heads to France, wanting to repair her authority and possibly to bask in the popularity of Emmanuel Macron, who last month swept to victory in a presidential contest.

May will also want to raise Britain’s talks to leave the European Union, which have been put in doubt since her governing Conservative Party suffered the setback in the election and now needs to strike a deal with a small Northern Irish party.

But her spokesman said the two leaders will focus on counter-terrorism, and return to May’s election campaign pledge to tackle online extremism following two attacks in as many weeks in Manchester and London that killed 30 people.

“The counter-terrorism cooperation between British and French intelligence agencies is already strong, but President Macron and I agree that more should be done to tackle the terrorist threat online,” May will say, according to her office.

She will add that the measures to “encourage corporations to do more and abide by their social responsibility” could include “creating a new legal liability for tech companies if they fail to remove unacceptable content”.

It was not clear how much further their talks would build on discussions at a meeting of the G7 most industrialised nations last month, where the leaders agreed to do more to purge extremist content.

Internet firms, such as Google and Twitter, say they are investing heavily and employing thousands of people to take down hate speech and violent content on their platforms, with evidence their efforts are working.

But the companies say they also struggle to identify replacement accounts that quickly reappear.

After two Islamist attacks in less than two weeks, May’s bid to clamp down on internet extremism has struck a chord with international leaders especially Macron, whose country has suffered several jihadist attacks since 2015.

“(At the G7) they had a very good conversation on how they could work together in order to make social media companies do more to address the fact their platforms are used to spread extremism,” May’s spokesman said.

“I would expect that conversation to continue tomorrow.”

France’s Macron accuses Le Pen of spreading lies about him

Faith Matters — Fri, 05 May 2017 10:48:44 +0000

The French prosecutor’s office launched an inquiry on Thursday into suspicions of fake news being spread to influence Sunday’s presidential vote after far-right leader Marine Le Pen implied her rival Emmanuel Macron held an offshore account.

Macron, favourite to win the presidency, denied allegations of using a foreign tax haven that were made on social media and referred to by Le Pen in an ill-tempered televised debate with him on Wednesday night. He accused her of spreading lies.

After Macron lodged a legal complaint over the allegations, a judicial source said the prosecutor’s office was investigating suspicions that fake news had been intentionally circulated with the aim of swaying Sunday’s voting.

Opinion polls show Macron, a centrist, has roughly a 20 point lead over Le Pen. They see him firmly on course to win after what was widely seen as his solid performance in Wednesday evening’s fractious face-to-face.

French shares and bonds and the euro performed strongly on Thursday, pointing to relief on financial markets that Le Pen had not gained ground with her pledges to quit the euro currency, hold a referendum on leaving the European Union, and print money to finance higher state spending.

It was at the end of the two-and-a-half hour debate, watched by 15 million people, that the National Front veteran insinuated that Macron might be concealing funds on a foreign tax account.

“I’ve never had an account in any tax haven,” Macron told France Inter radio on Thursday. “Le Pen is behind this. She has an internet army mobilising.”

He said she had allies spreading “false information and lies” who were “in certain cases linked to Russian interests”.

Macron’s party has previously complained that his campaign had been the target of “fake news” put out by Russian media, as well as internet attacks on its databases.

That prompted a warning by the French government in February that it would not accept interference by Russia or any other state in the election.

According to a snap poll by Elabe for BFMTV, 63 percent of viewers found Macron the more convincing of the two candidates in Wednesday’s debate, reinforcing his status as favourite to win the Elysee.

A second poll by Harris Interactive said 42 percent of people found Macron more convincing in the debate, during which the candidates traded barbs over the economy, the euro and how to combat terrorism.

Twenty-six percent found Le Pen more convincing, while 31 percent chose neither candidate, Harris said.

An OpinionWay survey carried out before the debate showed Macron widening his lead over Le Pen to 61 percent to 39.

Le Pen’s proposal to bring back the franc while replacing the euro with another, looser type of cooperation in the form of an ECU basket of currencies prompted an unusual foray into politics by French central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau.

“I hear proposals for a dual currency with the return of a national currency in parallel to a European currency. I must say that such suggestions would put confidence in the currency in danger,” he said at a conference.

A small group of protesters threw eggs at Le Pen as she arrived for a campaign event in Brittany on Thursday, shouting “Out with the Fascists!”

Former U.S. President Barack Obama endorsed Macron in a video message released by Macron’s party on Thursday, praising him for appealing “to people’s hopes and not their fears”.

Campaigning on an anti-EU, anti-globalisation platform, Le Pen has sought to portray Macron, a former investment banker and economy minister, as an out-of-touch member of an elite responsible for France’s ills, including unemployment of about 10 percent, low growth and a two-year spate of Islamist violence.

Macron has promised to stimulate growth with training programmes and a relaxation of labour laws, while reducing state expenditure.

CRITICAL FATHER

Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie Le Pen was critical of his daughter’s performance, saying most viewers would probably have found the first part of the debate incomprehensible.

“That may have benefited Emmanuel Macron, but it didn’t work to the advantage of Marine Le Pen, who perhaps lacked gravitas,” the founder of the National Front told RTL radio.

By law, official campaigning must end at midnight on Friday before voters go to the polls on Sunday.

Macron’s camp said that, two hours before the debate started, an anonymous account posted documents on an Internet forum purporting to prove that Macron had an offshore account, and the information was quickly distributed on Twitter.

Macron’s team released a screenshot of what it said was a falsified signature on documents purportedly proving “Macron’s secret tax evasion” as well as a trail of tweets spreading the information.

Le Pen told BFM TV on Thursday that she had no proof Macron had an offshore account, but did not want undisclosed funds to come to light when it was too late.

Macron’s team say his En Marche! party has been the target of attempts to steal email credentials since January.

Feike Hacquebord, a researcher with security firm Trend Micro, said last week that he had found evidence that it had been targeted by a cyber espionage group linked by some experts to the Russian military intelligence agency GRU.

Russia has denied involvement in attacks on Macron’s campaign.