The French Minister of the Interior announces new movements against Islamist separatism
Yesterday the French government dissolved the so-called Collectif Contre l'Islamophobie en France (CCIF), an organisation that government sources claim has been engaged in propagating an Islamist and anti-republican discourse for years. This organisation was included, together with another fifty or so others, in a list of groups that the French government is preparing to examine in order to combat destabilisation and Islamist propaganda. This decision was taken following the death of Professor Samuel Paty, a murder that shocked France and attacked one of its fundamental pillars: education.
However, the confirmation of the dissolution approved yesterday will not be valid, because already last Friday the CCIF itself announced its voluntary dissolution and the transfer of all its assets to other collaborating associations. The French government is thus prepared to combat Islamist proselytism and this state within the state that has been built up within France.
However, this is not the last news on this subject that Macron is pursuing. The French minister of the interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced on the microphones of French public radio, RFI, that the French intelligence services are targeting 76 places of worship from which messages against the French Republic could be broadcast.
These places of worship will be investigated after the meeting of the Minister of the Interior with the prefects and, if signs of radicalisation are found, they will be closed. Damanin warns that the figure is a very small percentage of the more than 2,500 registered Islamic places of worship, so "we cannot speak of widespread radicalisation", as some ideological sectors are seeking to do. But he adds that in some cases these anti-republican messages are very localised, and there is a need for research.
Following the assassination of Samuel Paty, French President Emmanuel Macron launched his offensive against Islamist separatism, which would use new legislation to tackle a problem that France had been suffering from for years but which no other government had wanted to tackle. Macron not only targeted organisations or places of worship that promoted radical messages, but also wanted to combat other aspects that could affect the radicalisation of young people, such as home schooling, the training of imams and the end of the virginity certificates issued by some doctors.
The impact of all these measures can only be assessed in the medium and long term, although in many sectors there is concern that they may fuel the xenophobic and racist discourse that is already present in some areas of French politics. Macron and his government have the difficult task of balancing, arguing and educating on the objectives they seek to achieve with these measures.