Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts
French President announces determination to fight “underground Islamism”
The “rightwing Figaro daily” states rightly about France’s jihad problem:
With all due respect for the apostles of ‘living in harmony’, this virus is incompatible with our freedom to live, move and think.
French President Macron is in a bind between the leftists who elected him and what appears to be his new resolve to confront the Salafism that threatens France. Macron pledged to “to clamp down on Salafist mosques and imams” back in January, but how he intends to do so with Muslim lobbies and his leftist base eager to levy charges of “Islamophobia” at every turn remains unclear. If Macron is actually serious about identifying problematic preachers and mosques, he will be targeted as an “Islamophobic” leader.
Macron is between the proverbial rock and a hard place, pressed by an ever urgent public fearful about jihad, “right wing” opposition voices of reason, and the leftist-jihadist alliance that plagues all of Europe.
If France intends to “overcome” the “insidious enemy that is radical Islamism,” as the title below states, Macron’s strategy should begin with casting away political correctness and recognizing that Western laws are in place to protect everyone equally, not serve the interests of Islamic supremacist groups.
“France still wrestling with how to overcome ‘insidious enemy’ that is radical Islamism”, The Local, March 28, 2018:
French president Emmanuel Macron has denounced “underground Islamism” as a new row has again flared in France over how to counter the influence of radical Salafist interpretations of Islam. Some have called for an outright ban.In the wake of Friday’s shootings by Radouane Lakdim, officials disclosed his links starting in 2013 with “the Salafist movement”, a Sunni Muslim branch originating in Saudi Arabia which promotes a strict conservative lifestyle.While a majority of Salafists disdain violence as they adher to the fundamentalist traditions of “pious ancestors”, some of its followers embrace using force to promote their beliefs.“It is not only the terrorist organizations, the armies of Daesh, the imams of hate and death that we are fighting against,” said French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday.“What we are fighting against is also this underground Islamism … which indoctrinates on our soil and corrupts daily,” he said, denouncing this “insidious enemy that requires every citizen to be vigilant and civic-minded.”Former Socialist prime minister Manuel Valls also addressed the issue in a radio interview Tuesday.“It’s not about forbidding a religion or even an idea, but I’m saying very clearly that we must forbid the spread of Salafism, because it’s the enemy.”“Of course not all Salafists are terrorists, but all the terrorists are Salafists,” he said.Many of the jihadist attackers who have struck France since the January 2015 massacre at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris were later found to have frequented Salafist circles.Legal experts almost unanimously dismiss the idea of a ban, saying any effort to outlaw a religious movement would run counter to freedom of belief and never hold up in court.Other critics say such moves would only drive extremist preachings underground, making it harder for authorities to monitor young people at risk of falling under the Salafists’ sway.But outrage over the killing of Arnaud Beltrame, the French officer whose throat was slit by Lakdim after taking the place of a hostage, and three other people could put new pressure on President Emmanuel Macron to take more aggressive measures.Some lawmakers have also renewed calls for “preventive detention” of the most radicalised Islamists already on watchlists, after it emerged Tuesday that Lakdim had been on the lists and was summoned for an interview with the authorities days before his attacks in southern France.“Our country must launch an extensive campaign to eradicate Salafism,” the rightwing Figaro daily wrote in a front-page editorial Tuesday.“With all due respect for the apostles of ‘living in harmony’, this virus is incompatible with our freedom to live, move and think.”……
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