Support from the Minister of the Interior the day before the presentation of his book at the Sorbonne. Gérald Darmanin announced that he would receive the anthropologist Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, author of a polemical book on the Islamist movement of the Muslim Brotherhood, said Thursday his entourage. The researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) was to present this Friday at the famous Parisian university of the Sorbonne her latest book on the movement of the Muslim Brotherhood, "The Brotherhood and its networks, the investigation", published in January.
But she announced Tuesday via Twitter that "the dean of the Faculty of Letters of the Sorbonne (had) requested the suspension of (her) conference (...) for security reasons." "Yet there was no demonstration against the event," she stressed, deploring an "impediment to work and to account for (her) work".
🔴I am informed that the dean of the Faculty of Letters of the Sorbonne has requested the "suspension" of my conference on Brotherhood which was to be held on May 12 for reasons of "security".
She did not contact me.
Yet there were no demonstrations against the event. pic.twitter.com/WzZkchvrA0
— Florence Bergeaud-Blackler (@FBBlackler) May 9, 2023
The postponement of the conference sparked strong reactions on Wednesday in France, while Florence Bergeaud-Blackler had to be placed under police protection after death threats, according to her lawyer. The Ministry of Higher Education and Research said Wednesday that the researcher would be received there "soon", considering "intolerable that academic freedom can be called into question by the slightest threat against her".
"The University is one of the first targets of Brotherhood entryism"
For her part, the researcher interviewed Thursday on Europe 1 denounces the lack of support from the public authorities and the research community: "The ministry and the CNRS tweeted in my defense, but no direct relationship (...) I did not receive a call from the Minister of Higher Education and Research, the CNRS or my laboratory. The support is quite timid."
"My career has been stopped for a very long time (...) I can no longer give lectures at the Sorbonne," @FBBlackler says before continuing: "I have a lot of support from the public (...) I'm not talking about Islam, I'm talking about Brotherhood#Europe1 pic.twitter.com/DKzJWXWOXB
— Europe 1 (@Europe1) May 11, 2023
According to her, "the University is one of the first targets of Brotherhood entryism". The postponement of his conference is "a way of giving credence to the thesis of my critics who accuse me of Islamophobia or racism". Founded in 1928 in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood movement carries the project of a conservative political Islam. He is now considered a "terrorist" in Egypt.
