French president, who proposes law against ‘Islamic separatism’, defends free speech amid Charlie Hebdo attack trial.
French President Emmanuel Macron criticised what he called “Islamic separatism” in his country and those who seek French citizenship without accepting France’s “right to commit blasphemy”.
Macron on Friday defended satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which published caricatures of Prophet Muhammad that helped inspire two French-born men to mount a deadly January 2015 attack on the paper’s newsroom.
The weekly republished the images this week as the trial began of 14 people over the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and on a kosher supermarket.
Speaking at a ceremony on Friday celebrating France’s democratic history and naturalising new citizens, the French president said: “You don’t choose one part of France. You choose France … The Republic will never allow any separatist adventure.”
Freedom in France, Macron said, includes: “The freedom to believe or not to believe. But this is inseparable from the freedom of expression up to the right to blasphemy.”
Noting the trial that opened on Wednesday, he said, “To be French is to defend the right to make people laugh, to criticise, to mock, to caricature.”
The 2015 attacks killed 17 people and marked the beginning of a wave of violence by the ISIL (ISIS) armed group in Europe.
Macron’s centrist government has promised a law in the coming months against “Islamic separatism” but it is not yet clear exactly what it would police.
Some critics fear it could unfairly stigmatise France’s Muslim population, the largest in Western Europe. (SOURCE: Aljazeera.com)
Comment:
Allah ﷺ commanded Rasulullah ﷺ (Fussilat 19-21) to warn humankind, especially the arrogant: وَيَوْمَ يُحْشَرُ أَعْدَاء اللَّهِ إِلَى النَّارِ فَهُمْ يُوزَعُونَ * حَتَّى إِذَا مَا جَاؤُوهَا شَهِدَ عَلَيْهِمْ سَمْعُهُمْ وَأَبْصَارُهُمْ وَجُلُودُهُمْ بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ * وَقَالُوا لِجُلُودِهِمْ لِمَ شَهِدتُّمْ عَلَيْنَا قَالُوا أَنطَقَنَا اللَّهُ الَّذِي أَنطَقَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ وَهُوَ خَلَقَكُمْ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ “And [mention, O Muhammad], the Day when the enemies of Allah will be gathered to the Fire while they are [driven] assembled in rows, Until, when they reach it, their hearing and their eyes and their skins will testify against them of what they used to do. And they will say to their skins, “Why have you testified against us?” They will say, “We were made to speak by Allah, who has made everything speak; and He created you the first time, and to Him you are returned.” [Fussilat: 19-21]
The ‘civilisation’ of the 21st century France allows the freedom of speech to persecute and insult God and the sacred and to attack people’s faith, but does not allow the believers of that faith to defend it. Not only has Macron justified blasphemy and the insulting of Rasullah ﷺ, but he also showed his true malice in criminalising anyone who protests against it. There is freedom to provoke, to hate, to cause hurt, but not enough civilisation to permit freedom of belief, to practice without provocation or blame, certainly not if you are Muslim.
In the 21st century Europe, Macron’s France, has relapsed into Hitler’s 19th century Germany.
Allah (swt) reminds the wicked and the arrogant that they will all face a time when He, (swt) الَّذِي أَنطَقَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ ‘Who has made everything speak’ will make parts of their own selves to speak freely to testify to their wickedness here on earth.
Islam does not allow the persecution of minorities. It is forbidden to intimidate or to force any people to embrace Islam or to leave their religion. Allah (swt) commands in Surah Al-Baqarah: 256 لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ “There is no compulsion in the Deen” [Al-Baqarah:256]
However, in Macron’s France, not only are Muslims provoked and victimised, but hatred for their way of life is sanctioned and normalise, and the sincere believers are criminalised as ‘separatists’, a distinction which is not afforded even to fascists antisemites and xenophobes in French society. Indeed, the so called ‘liberal’ France seems unable to convince Muslims intellectually and so resort to oppression.
In the same ayah, Allah (swt) continues, لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ قَد تَّبَيَّنَ الرُّشْدُ مِنَ الْغَيِّ “There is no compulsion in the Deen. The Right Way stands clearly distinguished from the wrong.” [Al-Baqarah:256]
For the sincere, rational thinking human being, Truth stands clear from falsehood.
This is the same Macron that flew around Beirut in his little helicopter, play-acting the returning saviour colonialist who must yet again carry the ‘white man’s burden’ for the ‘good’ of the people of Lebanon. In truth, this is the corrupted colonialist nation, who 100 years ago carved a wound in the body of the Ummah to separate the Muslim lands of Lebanon from the rest of the Ummah, to put it beyond the protection of Islam.
This the nation of France that hates Islam, persecutes the Muslims in their country and insults the Messenger ﷺ of 1.6 billion Muslims, attempting to extend her tentacles over the Muslims of Iraq, in the wake of waning Iranian influence.
Abu Hurairah narrated that our beloved Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: (لا يُلْدَغُ المؤمنُ من جُحْرٍ مرتين) “The believer should not be stung from the same hole twice.”
Macron is not our saviour. Reject Macron the hater of Islam, out of Lebanon and Iraq, along with all of the traitors and collaborators of France and the enemies of Allah (swt) and His Messenger. Out from all of our lands.
Our puppet rulers betray us. They adulate and emulate the enemies of Rasulullah ﷺ and imprison and kill those who love and yearn for the return of Islam. Neither they nor their colonial masters will give us the justice, peace and security we long for. It certainly does not lie with the ones who criminalise anyone who stands up for Islam and the Messenger ﷺ.
Allah (swt) sent the Messenger ﷺ with the Aqeedah and Nidham that will not only protect the Muslim Ummah and restore its honour, but will save the world from the oppression of the colonialists and the wicked.
Muslim narrated on the authority of al-A’araj, on the authority of Abu Hurairah that Rasulullah ﷺ said: إِنَّمَا الْإِمَامُ جُنَّةٌ يُقَاتَلُ مِنْ وَرَائِهِ وَيُتَّقَى بِهِ فَإِنْ أَمَرَ بِتَقْوَى اللَّهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ وَعَدَلَ كَانَ لَهُ بِذَلِكَ أَجْرٌ وَإِنْ يَأْمُرْ بِغَيْرِهِ كَانَ عَلَيْهِ مِنْهُ “Behold, the Imam is but a shield from behind whom the people fight and by whom they protect themselves.”
The Aqeedah of Islam and our love for Rasulullah ﷺ calls for us to move, to remove the kufr and taghut that is subjugating us and to reestablish the system Rasulullah ﷺ, the true Khilafah, the Daulah of Islam.
Mohammad Hamzah