Macron steps up battle in opposition to radical Islam (and his critics) – POLITICO

PARIS — Within the extremely charged days since a college trainer was beheaded in a Paris suburb, French authorities have grasped at straws to point out they’re clamping down on radical Islam.

They carried out dozens of raids, shuttered a mosque and some associations they are saying have connections to radical Islam, however even French President Emmanuel Macron says extra must be performed to handle a nationwide craving to stamp out extremism.

“We stepped up actions over latest days,” Macron stated Tuesday night after presiding over a gathering of an inter-agency disaster group set as much as battle radical Islam within the Paris space. And he promised extra was coming: “It’s not about making new statements,” Macron stated, “we all know what we have to do.”

Macron introduced the Cupboard will on Wednesday dissolve a pro-Hamas group referred to as Cheikh Yassine, which he stated was “straight concerned” within the ugly assassination of Samuel Paty, the eighth-grade trainer who was killed after he confirmed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed throughout a category dialogue on freedom of speech.

The trainer reportedly tried to be aware of the sensitivity of the topic for a few of his pupils by asking those that could be offended to both depart the category or look away, sparking the ire of 1 pupil’s father, amongst others.

After the disgruntled father or mother and a number of other others posted a video on social media denouncing the trainer, calling for mobilization in opposition to him and mentioning the tackle of the college, an 18-year-old man, with out obvious ties to the college, waited for Paty and beheaded him. On Tuesday, French media reported the investigation into the beheading revealed the assailant had been in contact with the daddy previous to the killing.

The assailant was of Chechen origin, and Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Tuesday night, in keeping with the Elysée, which stated Macron “needs to bolster Franco-Russian cooperation within the battle in opposition to terrorism and unlawful immigration.”

The assault isn’t the primary beheading or the bloodiest terror assault France has suffered lately, however it has struck a nerve. Colleges and academics, although underpaid and under-equipped, maintain a novel place within the collective creativeness of the French, who see themselves because the torchbearers of enlightenment. It additionally goes to the guts of the distinctive French conception of freedom of speech — one which prides itself on offending and tackling all sacred cows.

Paty’s slaying has additionally backed Macron right into a nook. Since he turned president, he has been pressured by critics — largely from the precise and much proper — to handle the safety, cultural and social challenges posed by radical Islam. The theme will function closely within the public debate till the presidential election in 2022, the place Macron is prone to face off as soon as extra in opposition to Marine Le Pen, in a rustic that struggles with tackling the problem with out reviving colonial wounds or tipping into Islamophobia and racism.

Trying to find a brand new resolution to an outdated drawback

France has had a homegrown radical Islam drawback for many years. It has brought on issues for successive presidents and governments, which have struggled to reconcile the repression essential to stamp it out with French legal guidelines, due course of and freedom of speech. It culminated in 2015 with the bloodiest string of terror assaults in Europe: In January, assailants attacked satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo after which in November, the Bataclan live performance corridor in addition to cafés and eating places in Paris.

The place of Islam in French society has been a lightning rod difficulty since former President Jacques Chirac handed a legislation banning French public service workers from sporting “ostentatious” non secular symbols, broadly interpreted as a roundabout means of banning the Muslim scarf.

Macron and his authorities say they took motion early on in his presidency, establishing native counter-radical-Islam working teams, deploying extra police in choose areas whereas additionally investing in social, cultural and academic packages to supply deprived youngsters — usually of immigrant descent and struggling discrimination — in poorer neighborhoods with the assist they should get forward.

Macron’s advisers additionally say he has not shied away from addressing the issue of radical Islam in a number of speeches, together with one honoring a slain officer killed in a terror assault in 2018, and a February speech through which he mentioned the levers wanted to battle radical Islam, together with by way of better means for faculties. However that speech was rapidly forgotten and overtaken by COVID-19.

Just a little over two weeks in the past, Macron gave a landmark speech detailing his technique to counter what he described because the methods radical Islam has infiltrated French society. He spoke of concrete actions comparable to coaching imams in France and curbing homeschooling and the affect of overseas nations on France’s Muslim populations. These can be included in a draft invoice in December, however his detractors say it was too little too late.

Proper after Friday’s assault, Macron and his authorities did precisely what each earlier authorities and president have performed after an enormous assault: They tried to reassure the general public by way of a sequence of bulletins. Inside Minister Gérald Darmanin introduced an enormous police sweep in opposition to sure people (10 folks stay in custody) and ordered the shuttering of a mosque and the dissolution of different associations with ties to radical Islam.

But one query that has dogged authorities since Friday is why one of many folks presently in police detention in reference to the killing of Paty, Abdelhakim Sefrioui — a co-founder of the Cheikh Yassine affiliation — had not been dropped at justice earlier. He has lengthy been identified in France for his extremist views and ties to radical Islam, and his clashes with different Muslim leaders who’ve denounced his positions.

France can be pushing for an EU-wide toughening of measures to sort out hate speech on-line and has lengthy backed Brussels’ ongoing legislative efforts to take down terrorist content material from social media.

On Tuesday, Europe Minister Clément Beaune mentioned the hassle with French ambassadors throughout the bloc, and European Fee Vice President Margaritis Schinas stated in response to a tweet by Beaune on the problem that the “EU Fee proposed in September 2018 new guidelines to delete terrorist content material on the net. The Christchurch assaults and the homicide of Samuel Paty present the urgency to undertake them. Let’s work relentlessly to do it.”

On Wednesday, Macron will award Paty the Legion of Honor, France’s highest civilian honor, and can lead a nationwide tribute to him. It can happen on the Sorbonne College, a location chosen by Paty’s household.

“The Sorbonne is the symbolic monument of the spirit of enlightenment and of French cultural, literary and academic affect,” in keeping with an Elysée official.