A judge placed France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen under formal investigation on Thursday on suspicion of disseminating violent images over tweets she posted of Islamic State executions, a move she indicated was politically motivated.

The investigation relates to three graphic images of Islamic State executions she posted on Twitter in December 2015, including the beheading of American journalist James Foley.

“If they are trying to silence me, they will not succeed,” Le Pen told news channel LCI. She had denounced an earlier stage of the investigation as “political interference”.

Under France’s legal system, being formally placed under investigation often – but not always – leads to a person being sent to trial.

The judge’s decision to step up the investigation comes a little over a week ahead of the National Front’s annual congress, where she is expected to lay out how she plans to rebuild the battered party after her thumping defeat at the hands of President Emmanuel Macron in last year’s election.

It is, though, unlikely to affect her popularity with party loyalists.

Other ongoing investigations, including one into allegations her party misused European Union funds to pay parliamentary assistants and another into the financing of past election campaigns, have not dented her appeal among the National Front faithful. She has denied any wrongdoing in both cases.

Party stalwarts rallied around Le Pen on social media.

“@MLP_officiel placed under formal investigation for spreading photos of Islamic State executions. No, it’s no good telling the truth,” tweeted Bryan Masson, a National Front official from the southern Alpes-Maritimes region.

If the investigation proceeds to a trial, Le Pen could face a maximum sentence of several years in jail and a 75,000 euro fine if convicted.

Katie Hopkins, ever the self-publicist, has done it again. In the desire to play to an audience that is distrustful of Muslims and who may never have taken the time to get to know Muslims, Hopkins has once again, pushed the boundaries in packaging Muslims as being deviant.

Hopkins states:

“Muslim men raping white women is consistent with the teaching of Islam. Revoke their citizenship and deport the bastards. Asian my arse.”

The tweet infers that Muslims (note that she makes no distinction between Muslims), rape white women and that it is a religious directive of sorts. The text is clear on the following. That Islam teaches Muslim men to rape white women. On this point, there is no wiggle room on the tweet. It is clear.

Taking this point alone, the statement does not stand up and if we were to use the same logic, it could be said that Christian men were raping Muslim women in Bosnia in line with the teaching of the Christian church. Not only would such a statement by inflammatory, it would also be wrong. Whilst it could be strongly argued that the Church in Serbia sanctioned the brutal war against Croatia and Bosnia and in some instances, specific churches and priests sanctioned the use of brutal violence and sexual violence against Muslims in Bosnia, suggesting that Christianity drove such a lust for rape against Muslim women in Bosnia would be incendiary and deeply inflammatory. Yet, you can see the support for such rhetoric that is out there on social media which is deeply troubling and worrying.

Hopkins also plays to the ‘impulsive’, ‘uncontrollable’, and ‘sexually predatory’ tropes that were associated with the Black man who was enslaved in plantations and which has been a constant in the framing of men from non-white communities. Native Americans were also framed in this way, Jews were framed in this way in Germany in the 1930’s and young African Caribbean men were and continue to be framed in this way since they arrived in our country in the 1950’s.

So there is nothing different here, yet it must also be acknowledged that the activities in Rotherham, Rochdale and Oxford need to be looked at in light of the perpetrators and we must stand front and centre with the victims who suffered the most brutal abuse and worst still, being denied justice for so many years. It is telling that Hopkins chooses not to stand on this point but to punch buttons around all Muslims being potential rapists.

Muslim men raping white women is consistent with the teaching of Islam. Revoke their citizenship and deport the bastards. Asian my arse.

— Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) February 26, 2016

We would also like to add that we will be writing to the Metropolitan Police Service today on this material. This is not a one-off and there are a series of tweets that have been made before that are deeply troubling. Furthermore, we will be writing to Twitter to take action in relation to accounts that promote such wide sweeping bigoted statements and which are more about playing to an audience, than remembering about the victims of such abuse who deserve our support.

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