Emmanuel Macron published Wednesday evening November 4 in the prestigious British daily Financial Times a column to explain that
"France is fighting against Islamist separatism, never against Islam"
, in response to an article published Monday but removed from the site since .
Read also: Emmanuel Macron toughens his tone against Islamist separatism
In a long
“letter to the editor”
, also published on the Élysée website, the French president is indignant at an article in which he says he is
“accused of stigmatizing French Muslims for electoral purposes;
worse, to maintain a climate of fear and suspicion towards them ”
.
"I will not let anyone say that France, its State, cultivates racism vis-à-vis Muslims," he
insists, believing that his words have been distorted.
As on the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera last week, the French president wants to explain beyond the borders of France that his fight against
"Islamist separatism"
is not a fight against Islam, while the Muslims of several countries reacted angrily to his words, with a call for a boycott of French products.
After recalling the series of attacks that have struck France since the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January 2015 and the attacks of November 13 which left 300 dead, Emmanuel Macron explains that France is under attack for its values, secularism, freedom of expression and that it
"will not give in"
.
Go and visit the neighborhoods where little girls of three or four years old wear the full veil ”
Emmanuel Macron
But the Head of State also explains in detail the cases of
Islamist
"separatism"
, according to him
"breeding ground for terrorist vocations"
.
He thus evokes
"hundreds of radicalized individuals who are feared, at any time, that they will take a knife and go and kill the French"
.
"In some neighborhoods as much as on the Internet, groups linked to radical Islam teach the children of France to hate the Republic, call for not respecting the laws."
"You do not believe me ?
Reread the exchanges, the calls to hatred broadcast in the name of a misguided Islam, on social networks which finally led to the death of Professor Samuel Paty a few days ago.
Go visit the neighborhoods where little girls of three or four years wear the full veil "
and
" raised in a project of hatred of the values of France, "he
says.
Read also: Emmanuel Macron launches his law against Islamist separatism
"This is what France intends to fight today"
but
"never against Islam"
.
“Against obscurantism, fanaticism, violent extremism.
Never against a religion.
We say:
“Not at home!
»
, He adds.
"It is our strictest right as a sovereign nation"
,
"we do not need newspaper articles seeking to divide us
,
"
he concludes.
