Sosyal Medya

Politics

S'il vous plaît! SERVING FULL MACRON’S PLATE!

Macron not only awarded Mr Samuel Paty the highest French award post-humous for being a hero of freedom of speech but also maintained his support for displaying the Charlie Hebdo caricature depiction of the Prophet (PBUH) on state-owned buildings.
31-10-2020 10:49
Ashraf Akintola
 
And the caption goes thus – “وَیَمۡكُرُونَ وَیَمۡكُرُ ٱللَّهُۖ وَٱللَّهُ خَیۡرُ ٱلۡمَـٰكِرِینَ”. A verse in the Quran, Suratul Anfaal verse 30 with the meaning- “They planned, but Allah also planned. And Allah is the best of planners.”- Succinctly captioned as a counterattack against the French President Emmanuel Macron for fanning the flames of Islamophobia following the October 16 murder of the schoolteacher, Samuel Paty who fancies displaying a disparaging caricature of the Prophet (PBUH) in his freedom of speech civic class. Macron not only awarded Mr Samuel Paty the highest French award post-humous for being a hero of freedom of speech but also maintained his support for displaying the Charlie Hebdo caricature depiction of the Prophet (PBUH) on state-owned buildings.
 
As countries across the globe commiserated with the French Government on the unfortunate murder, widespread condemnation followed the French president’s statement on the incident being "a typical Islamist terrorist attack", especially from Muslims. To stoke further the ember of Islamophobic rhetoric, Macron described Islam as a religion “in crisis” to which the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan questioned Macron's mental health and called for a boycott of French goods worldwide. Macron’s comments; “A typical Islamist terrorist attack”, “Islam is a religion in crisis” and his support for denigrating the prophet through shameful caricatures are not new catchphrases used by the far-right whenever they wish to score cheap political points but this time around, it is a tool that Macron forever would live to regret.
 
Defined by Alain Quellien in his 1910 Doctoral dissertation in France as “racism, prejudice and negation of Islamic civilization and a dominant approach of labelling Muslims and Islam as an implacable enemy of the Europeans”, Islamophobia became the newest obsession of the powerful west shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the subsequent defeat of communism in Eastern Europe. Huttington explained brilliantly in his 1996 monumental book “Clash of Civilizations” that people's cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world. As true as this assertion was, it explains how Islamophobia has been the force Islam had to contend with right from its infancy till date. From uprooting paganism from the commercial centre of Arabia to toppling the powerful Persian and Byzantine empires to ruling for centuries in the centre of Europe to the crusades down to the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Islam has been a soft target of its enemies and in their folly, they resort to any method or procedure to wipe the sacred religion from the face of the earth. Macron's comments coming at a time when the election is near is, therefore, a strong indication of the plot that is about to play out.
 
It is noteworthy to state that the Islamophobic discourse Macron is currently plying has already been tried and tested by his predecessor Sarkozy, and it did not help him win the elections back in 2012. Sarkozy was not shy of his anti-Turk policy and anti- Muslim rhetoric to the extent that he championed the ban on Hijab in the country as well as the notorious letter with 300 others to redact the Quran. Despite these, he was subsequently defeated by Francois Hollande in his second term bid. Macron just like his predecessor must resort to diversionary tactics, such as the stigmatization of the Muslim minority using Islamophobia as his scapegoat. However, it is clear through a September 2020 IPSOS opinion poll that a 78 per cent vast majority of French citizens believe that France is a state of decline and 27 per cent of them said that such a decline is irreversible due to the corona pandemic. And as an Al Jazeera opinion post puts it;
 
“Popular anger has reached the boiling point and manifested itself in street protests. In the spring of 2018, major public sector strikes took place followed by the Gilets Jaunes (yellow vests) protests in fall. Then throughout 2019, there were major demonstrations against pension reforms, fuel-price hikes, police violence, and unemployment. The year ended with one of the longest public transportation strikes in French history, which paralysed the country.”
 
Macron strongly believes that his anti-Islamic stance would galvanize the support of the far right and a good portion of the French left. Unfortunately, his masterplan is being foiled by the resounding condemnation coming from the Muslim world.
 
As pointed out by French Historian, Dominique Vidal, France under Macron has been drifting to the extreme right through rhetorical, political and practical levels. These are obvious tools employed by neo-conservatives to stereotype the religion Islam as a whole to silence domestic opposition perspectives. In response, he has successfully incurred the wrath of the international Muslim community. Unanimously, Muslims across the globe have started coming out to impose a blockade on French products which if strongly implemented would add more devastating blows on the already ailing French economy. The Turkish and the Pakistani presidents have both taken strong stances on their government's readiness to boycott all French products. Angered by the response of the Turkish president, Macron who pretends to wage a crusade for free speech, took a negative reaction very badly and recalled his ambassador from Turkey. If Macron could feel this bad to the extent of recalling an ambassador what does he expect from the Muslims when their prophet is scandalized through cartoons?
 
Meanwhile, amidst calls for the boycott spreading across the Muslim world, supermarkets in Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan are already emptying their shelves from French products. The French government was visibly upset by this movement. However, instead of adopting a conciliatory tone, it used arrogant verbiage and accused the boycotters of being part of a ‘radical minority’. Such a condescending behaviour will only exacerbate negative feelings against France and harm French exports in a time of global recession.This was practically the same scenario that played out when the United States threatened to use force against Saudi Arabia in 1973 after King Faisal, along with other Arab leaders, imposed an oil embargo on countries that supported Israel during the October War. The oil embargo was instrumental in encouraging the US to find a quick and just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict as at that material point in time. Although the Saudi Arabia Foreign Ministryreleased a statement expressing its solidarity with the French people, while rejecting violence and repeated its position that religious symbols should be respected and that people should refrain from insulting religion, it is however unclear whether they would also impose similar blockade like the rest of the Muslim world. As the third-largest exporter of arms, France, supplied Saudi Arabia with undisclosed arms to the tune of billions of Euros as they execute their fight in Yemen. If Saudi Arabia and UAE (another big trade partner) alone suspend trade with France, there is no doubt that the economy of the country would crumble as 50% of France's export comes from arms sales and the two are its major buyers. But trust the Gulf states never to sacrifice anything in the name of Islam.
 
As the French boycott becomes hotter by the day, it is imperative that Muslims realize the power in their 1.8 Billion global population to form an economic bloc that acts at the blow of a whistle. In the guise of freedom of speech, what we hold dearer to our heart more than our life has been repeatedly abused and it is obvious that the only language that any government of the world understand is that of its economic power. This is the game that China plays with American products and they dictate at any given period what tune big companies in America should dance to. We can also apply that as Muslims in our fight against this oppression and with Allah’s support, the victory shall be ours.

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