Identification numbers for Muslim children: a fake news itinerary

The rumor had been swirling for two days on social networks.

By claiming that France was planning to assign identification numbers to Muslim children, the Pakistani Minister of Human Rights on Saturday contributed to the proliferation of "fake news" propagated, among others, by websites of unscrupulous information.

At issue: a poor understanding, probably initially unintentional, of English-language articles exposing the content of the bill “consolidating the republican principles”, formerly called “bill on separatism”.

Because it clearly mentions the obligation to extend an identification number, already existing, to… all students in the country.

What is in the bill

Part of the government's strategy is to tackle dropping out of school children.

It was in this context in particular that he decided to drastically limit home schooling, which would sometimes serve to exclude children from any form of education or even to subject them to radical religious education.

"In some neighborhoods, there are more little boys than little girls (at school, editor's note), while statistically we know that more little girls are born, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, worried recently. , near the Figaro.

It's a scandal not to see these little ghosts of the Republic.

"

VIDEO.

Home schooling will be "strictly limited", announces Macron

Also in this logic, the government wishes to generalize the allocation of a well-known identification number.

In place for years, the national student identifier, more commonly known as “INE”, allows the National Education to follow students from their three years to Parcoursup.

Newsletter - Most of the news

Every morning, the news seen by Le Parisien

I'm registering

Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.

Learn more

But home-schooled children are deprived of it, as are students in non-contract private schools, also in the government's sights.

In 2018, a parliamentary mission on early school leaving led by two socialist deputies, Anne Brugnera and George Pau-Langevin, already recommended extending it to all students, in order to promote their monitoring.

A proposal retained in the bill.

How the rumor originated

The presence of this mention among others more directly concerning the Muslim religion, like the encouraged reorganization of places of worship, has apparently fueled a form of confusion abroad, especially through the English-language newspaper reviews.

BBC News - France's Macron issues 'republican values' ultimatum to Muslim leaders.

• Children will be given an IDENTIFICATION NUMBER to help locate them.

• Imams must register.

• No political actions as Muslims.

Macron is going full Marine Le Penhttps: //t.co/vJg21Xmkzy

- Alex Tiffin FND BPD DEP (@RespectIsVital) November 19, 2020

Thursday, Alex Tiffin, a British journalist, provokes nearly 12,000 reactions on Twitter by mixing, under a BBC article, statements on "imams", "Muslims" and "identification numbers" attributed to children.

In another message since shared, the same journalist believes that France is "institutionally Islamophobic".

The next day, several accounts followed by tens of thousands of people more directly repeat the same false information, according to which the identification number would only be given to "Muslim children".

“Muslim children will be given a unique identification number under the law” which the government will use to monitor their activities and potentially penalize their parents.

https://t.co/2qpgPyZXdu

- Zahra Billoo (@ZahraBilloo) November 20, 2020

This is for example the case of Zahra Billoo, an American who presents herself as a "civil rights lawyer".

Called to correct her mistake by other Internet users, she admits a "bad quote" but persists in maintaining her message.

"This law is part of a massive Islamophobic campaign and will be used specifically to target Muslim families," she says without any other form of proof.

How the Pakistani minister shared this false information in turn

On Saturday, deceptive accusations continue to proliferate on social networks through increasingly powerful relays.

Washington Post reporter Karen Attiah told her 200,000 followers that Emmanuel Macron "wants to give Muslim children an identification number to go to school".

This false information is soon picked up by the London media The Muslim Vibe.

On its website, it presents itself as "a multi-media platform" aimed at "nurturing a strong Western Muslim identity, united and faithful to Islamic values".

In his article posted on Saturday and since modified, he is alarmed by “shocking new developments” relating to “the increasingly obvious Islamophobia supported by the state in France”.

The bill "against so-called

in France" obliges, he said, to "give Muslim children an identification number that will allow them to be tracked and to ensure that they go to school. ".

READ ALSO>

Terrorism and secularism: five minutes to understand the controversy between Macron and the Anglo-Saxon press

It is precisely this article that the Pakistani Minister of Human Rights will share on the same day.

Shireen Mazari then makes the comparison with the Nazi regime, where “Jews were forced to wear the yellow star on their clothes to be identified.

On Sunday, under pressure from the French authorities, the minister ended up withdrawing her message following the publication, on the site The Muslim Vibe, of a word of apology.

It must be said that Pakistan has been the scene since September of anti-French demonstrations, often stormy, following the republication of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons.

Or how the misinterpretation, on social networks, of information has further strained the diplomatic relations of two cold countries.