Mathieu Bock-Côté: "The blind spot in the fight against Islamism"

2/21/2020, 7:33:03 PM

CHRONICLE - On the scale of history, Islam itself is a foreign religion in France and its recent establishment was not done there under the sign of harmony.

It was a much awaited speech. Emmanuel Macron finally had to confront the question of Islamism. He found his angle of attack by denouncing Islamist separatism.

Read also: Mosques, teachers, imams… Macron's “anti-separatism” plan

The formula strikes and echoes General de Gaulle's denunciation of communist "separatism" after the Second World War. It challenges a country that wants to be one and indivisible, haunted since always by the possibility of its fragmentation. We will see there a marker of political resolution: the President of the Republic defends the integrity of the country. Many speak of the reconquest of its lost territories: the term is the right one. The simple fact of speaking of reconquest presupposes the recognition that certain parts of the national territory have been conquered by political Islam.

But the denunciation of separatism comes up against the timidity and technical nature of the measures announced, which mainly target the teaching of foreign languages in France, the imams who preach there and the funding