France passes a law against Islamist separatism and in favor of the secularism of the state

The deputies of four parties of left and right, LFI, PCF, PS and LR voted against, for different reasons. The Socialists in particular see it as a “missed appointment with the Republic” and a mark of “distrust of associations”, while the right sums it up as “a sum of measures” without “ambition” to “push back the Islamists.” “

The right and the left agree on the alleged risks for freedom of association, which motivates them to have lodged appeals before the Constitutional Council. The three groups of the majority bloc, the LREM party and its partners Modem and Agir, obtained the approval of a large majority of the initiative.

The far right of the RN (Le Pen) abstained. This approval comes after the approval of the draft Law on “Prevention of Acts of Terrorism and Intelligence”, which extends the validity of the mechanisms of state of exception imposed since 2017 by the law “internal security and fight against terrorism”.

The far-left populist he was also against it. The populist leader of France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, defended a motion to reject an “anti-republican law” with an “anti-Muslim vocation”, according to him.

But the text is “of general scope” and “does not deal with relations with a single religion,” said the chairman of the special commission François de Rugy (LREM).

The historical context

France has suffered massive terrorist attacks by Islamic fanatics since 2015, who left hundreds of victims. The worst episode was night of terror experienced in Paris on November 13, 2015, with several attacks with bombs and machine guns in different parts of the city that killed 130 people and more than 350 wounded, France lives in a state of permanent alert. The group Islamic state the atrocious multiple attendant has been assigned.

Intelligence services monitor at least 7,500 suspects, Islamists who have radicalized on the Internet, like the terrorists of the November 2015 attack.

France already knew that its freedoms were in danger: On January 7, 2015, masked and armed with assault rifles, they entered the editorial staff of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo., killing 12 people and injuring 11 others at the cry of “Allahu Akbar” (‘Allah is the greatest’). They also killed a policeman. Charlie Hebdo had won the hatred of Islamist fanatics when published a long series of caricatures of Muhammad.

But the terrorist attacks continued. In October 2020, a Chechen beheads a teacher in a Parisian high school because he had used the Muhammad cartoons to teach a course on freedom of expression.

President Emmanuel Macron took a firm line and asserted that France will never renounce the principle of secularism, which religious members of the Muslim community in fact ignore., nor to defend freedom of expression. Macron also defended the right to publish cartoons, even of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

The problem of The poor integration of the Muslim community into the life of France is old. Confronting Islamist separatism The Secularism Observatory was created in 2007, an advisory body that reports to the Prime Minister. France has the largest Muslim community in Europe, with more than 5 million members.