Quote:

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  Tested on poor minorities, French police violence hits Yellow Vest movement
  
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  Muslim Graveyards in Germany sprayed with swastika
  
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  ‘It’s anti-Muslim hatred, not “Islamophobia”’
  
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  European Muslims seek protective laws in the face of rising hate crimes
  
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  Why are French people protesting, blocking roads and highways?
  

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the French president’s main policy priority appears to be placing new restrictions on the country’s Muslim community.
French President Emmanuel Macron has once again offered his unsolicited opinion on the purported ‘crisis’ within Islam.

The comments by the French leader come on the back of previous attacks against the Muslim community in the country, with Macron earlier criticising members of the faith for ‘separatism’.
“Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world today, we are not just seeing this in our country,” the French president said in a speech introducing a new law to strengthen France’s state ideology of militant secularism, known as Laicite.

Under the existing regime, religious symbols, such as headscarves are banned from schools and educational institutes and women who wear the face veil are subject to fines and prosecution.
The policies stem from the central government, as well on the local authority level, meaning regional politicians can enforce their own hardline interpretation of Laicite.

In such instances, Muslim businesses have been forced to shut down because their owners did not want to sell produce that conflicted with their religious beliefs.
But even this system of restrictions on Islamic practice is not enough for Macron as he prepares a new round of measures.

French Muslims and other critics were quick to respond to his comments, with some questioning why the president had chosen this moment to launch his assault.
“French Muslims must be pretty flattered that in a middle of global pandemic and even a European Council, Emmanuel Macron has taken the time out to tell them all how they should stop becoming Islamist separatists.” Wrote the journalist Mehreen Khan on Twitter.
The political scientist, Bruno Macaes, said: “It’s stunning to watch this. I don’t think any Western leader has ever spoken of Islam like this. There was always a careful distinction between Islam and fundamentalist movements.”

Like many other states across the globe, France is facing its worst economic crisis in decades as the coronavirus pandemic causes havoc within the country.
Continuous protests by the Yellow Vest movement, as well as by minorities protesting police brutality, have further contributed to the instability within the country.

Deep rooted anti-Muslim hatred
Macron’s latest salvo against Islam comes amid the backdrop of traditional French Islamophobia, as well as the realpolitik of contemporary European states.
French colonialism in the Middle East and Africa was justified with overt anti-Islamic reasoning.
In Algeria, French imperialists enforced the removal of the veil and banned native Algerian Muslims from obtaining citizenship unless they dropped their belief in Islam and their use of the Arabic or Amazigh languages.

The culmination of such policies was the brutal war against the Algerian independence movement, which ended in 1962 with the French withdrawal but only after the deaths of at least a million Algerians.

In more recent times, across the US and Europe, anti-Muslim rhetoric has been a powerful tool to win over the electorate and distract from more day-to-day issues, such as unemployment and rising poverty.

In a 2019 report, the Brookings Institute scholar Shadi Hamid wrote: “Demographic fears- even if they don’t correspond to reality- are difficult to ignore in democracies, where the changing ethnic or religious composition of the population can shape and even determine whether a party can win on the local or national level.”

As things stand, both Macron and the far-right Marine Le Pen are polling at 25 percent for the presidential election set for 2022.

As Le Pen’s platform is almost entirely defined by her anti-Islam platform, observers believe Macron is trying to boost his credentials among those who hold anti-Muslim views.

On his Twitter account, the journalist CJ Werleman summarised: “Macron’s political future is in crisis today and he’s turning to the never fail election campaign strategy of inflaming anti-Muslim animus.”
Curiously, The French president has chosen to partner with the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia to work on establishing his brand of ‘moderate’ Islam.

Macron’s definition of radical Islam stops at French Muslims speaking in Arabic or other languages or wearing headscarves and other religious clothing. It does not extend to regimes in the Middle East who commit massacres, murder journalists or imprison dissidents for tweets.

Quote:And at a time when the world powers can’t seem to agree on anything, they seem to have reached near unanimity that Erdogan is a troublemaker.

Turkey’s pugnacious president has recently been attracting sharp jabs even from those who used to pull their punches. The U.S. State Department has said it “deplores” Turkey’s decision to restart a controversial geological survey of the Eastern Mediterranean, and called on Ankara to “end this calculated provocation.”

This language is some of the strongest that the Trump administration has directed against Erdogan, who has the ear and affection of his American counterpart.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin, described by Erdogan as a “good friend,” is taking a dim view of his role as cheerleader of the Caucasian conflict, where Turkey is enthusiastically backing Azerbaijan against Armenia. The Kremlin has accused Turkey of adding “fuel to the flames” of the long-simmering dispute over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. A ceasefire called by Moscow has not ended the fighting.

Other sources of criticism are more predictable. French President Emmanuel Macron, who has fulminated against Erdogan for Turkey’s intervention in the Libyan civil war, has added its conduct in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Caucasus to his list of grievances. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has fended off wider European calls to punish Turkey, finds herself in an awkward position with the resumption of exploration in the troubled waters. It “most certainly would be anything but conducive to the continued development of EU-Turkish relations,” her spokesperson said.

As if all this wasn’t enough, condemnation has come from unexpected quarters — such as India, which was not pleased by Erdogan’s comments about Kashmir to the United Nations General Assembly. “Turkey should learn to respect the sovereignty of other nations and reflect on its own policies more deeply,” sniffed New Delhi’s Permanent Representative to the UN.

The “how” of Turkey’s foreign-policy freefall is well documented: Most of Ankara’s conflicts are of Erdogan’s choosing. He might have easily avoided entanglement in the Libyan civil war or the Caucasian crisis, and held his rhetorical fire on Kashmir. In each instance, he elected to wade in.

The “why” of it all is harder to fathom. Those seeking doctrinaire explanations for Erdogan’s adventurism can choose from neo-Ottomanism, Turkish ethno-nationalism and Islamism. Others point to geopolitics: Turkey, they say, is maneuvering for space in an emerging multipolar order, where it sees itself as a mid-sized world power, with an economic and cultural reach to befit that status as well as the requisite military muscle. Seen in this light, the aggressive foreign policy is an assertion of rights.

The cost in Turkish blood has been remarkably low, not least because a great deal of the fighting is done by foreign mercenaries recruited from the killing fields of Syria. If there is any Turkish presence in the Libyan or Caucasian frontlines, it is more likely to be in the air — showing off the country’s burgeoning capabilities in drone warfare — than on the ground.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articl...dventurism

(October 27, 2020 at 3:56 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: What is your obsession with Macron? It's Muslims who are warmongering, like your beloved Turkey who is in confrontation with most countries along its border, like Greece, Syria, Israel, Cyprus, Iraq, Armenia, Egypt. As well as with further countries like France, Saudi Arabia, UAE.

Quote:And at a time when the world powers can’t seem to agree on anything, they seem to have reached near unanimity that Erdogan is a troublemaker.

Turkey’s pugnacious president has recently been attracting sharp jabs even from those who used to pull their punches. The U.S. State Department has said it “deplores” Turkey’s decision to restart a controversial geological survey of the Eastern Mediterranean, and called on Ankara to “end this calculated provocation.”

This language is some of the strongest that the Trump administration has directed against Erdogan, who has the ear and affection of his American counterpart.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin, described by Erdogan as a “good friend,” is taking a dim view of his role as cheerleader of the Caucasian conflict, where Turkey is enthusiastically backing Azerbaijan against Armenia. The Kremlin has accused Turkey of adding “fuel to the flames” of the long-simmering dispute over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. A ceasefire called by Moscow has not ended the fighting.

Other sources of criticism are more predictable. French President Emmanuel Macron, who has fulminated against Erdogan for Turkey’s intervention in the Libyan civil war, has added its conduct in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Caucasus to his list of grievances. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has fended off wider European calls to punish Turkey, finds herself in an awkward position with the resumption of exploration in the troubled waters. It “most certainly would be anything but conducive to the continued development of EU-Turkish relations,” her spokesperson said.

As if all this wasn’t enough, condemnation has come from unexpected quarters — such as India, which was not pleased by Erdogan’s comments about Kashmir to the United Nations General Assembly. “Turkey should learn to respect the sovereignty of other nations and reflect on its own policies more deeply,” sniffed New Delhi’s Permanent Representative to the UN.

The “how” of Turkey’s foreign-policy freefall is well documented: Most of Ankara’s conflicts are of Erdogan’s choosing. He might have easily avoided entanglement in the Libyan civil war or the Caucasian crisis, and held his rhetorical fire on Kashmir. In each instance, he elected to wade in.

The “why” of it all is harder to fathom. Those seeking doctrinaire explanations for Erdogan’s adventurism can choose from neo-Ottomanism, Turkish ethno-nationalism and Islamism. Others point to geopolitics: Turkey, they say, is maneuvering for space in an emerging multipolar order, where it sees itself as a mid-sized world power, with an economic and cultural reach to befit that status as well as the requisite military muscle. Seen in this light, the aggressive foreign policy is an assertion of rights.

The cost in Turkish blood has been remarkably low, not least because a great deal of the fighting is done by foreign mercenaries recruited from the killing fields of Syria. If there is any Turkish presence in the Libyan or Caucasian frontlines, it is more likely to be in the air — showing off the country’s burgeoning capabilities in drone warfare — than on the ground.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articl...dventurism

(October 27, 2020 at 5:55 am)Peebo-Thuhlu Wrote: At work.

In relation to WinterHold's opening question as to why the French PM's attitude towards seeming religious extremism?

Because both the French phsyche and Islamic extremists are arrogant feks.

 

Quote: [Quranic Reflection]: What should Muslims do when the verses of God are made fun of?

Quote:Sura 4, The Quran:
https://quran.ksu.edu.sa/index.php?l=en#...rans=en_sh

( 140 )   And it has already come down to you in the Book that when you hear the verses of Allah [recited], they are denied [by them] and ridiculed; so do not sit with them until they enter into another conversation. Indeed, you would then be like them. Indeed Allah will gather the hypocrites and disbelievers in Hell all together -

Quote: What explains Macron’s obsession with Islam and Muslims?

(October 27, 2020 at 3:02 am)WinterHold Wrote: <snipping for brevity>