Such rhetoric essentially contributes to dangerously rendering Muslim communities in France an easy target for the French right and ultranationalist groups to demonize, discriminate against and blame for internal problems. To defend ridiculing, mocking or demonizing the religious symbols or beliefs of a heavily targeted Muslim community, is to encourage such actions and contribute to the incitement against this vulnerable group Dr.
Earlier this month, French President, Emanuel Macron, made some highly controversial remarks about Muslim communities in France and Islam in general. By vowing to crackdown on a version of Islam that he deems unfavorable and pledging to work on producing another version that he deems more compatible with French principles, President Marcon is substantially violating article 1 of the law.
Few weeks before this controversial statement, President Macron had defended the mocking of Islamic religious symbols such as the Prophet Muhammad as a matter of free speech. However, the responsibility to protect persecuted, desperate, and heavily targeted minorities should come before the right to mock. For instance, in , the Mayor of the Southern French city of Beaucaire outlawed alternatives to pork in school cafeterias, insisting that religious exceptions to the menu violate France's vaunted Republican principles.
In the wake of the horrendous and widely condemned beheading of French schoolteacher, Samuel Paty, in Mid-October by an year-old Chechen extremist, two Jordanian Muslim tourists were violently assaulted in the city of Angers in western France. We emphasize that France should comply with the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion in accordance with article 5 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ; article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The French government should show respect and solidarity towards the Muslim Community at a time where they are often singled out for harassment and targeting, instead on jumping on board with targeting Islam for political gains and electoral expediency.
