Macron criticizes media coverage after the attacks in France | France

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President Emmanuel Macron called on a New York Times writer to criticize the English-language coverage of France’s stance on what it calls “Islamic separatism” after the recent attacks, arguing that this amounts to “legitimizing” the violence .“When France was attacked five years ago, all the nations of the world supported us,” Macron told Ben Smith during the appeal, which Smith described in his Sunday column.

“So when I see, in this context, several newspapers which I believe come from countries which share our values ​​… when I see them legitimizing this violence, and saying that the heart of the problem is that France is racist and Islamophobic, then I say the founding principles have been lost.

In his column on their exchange, Smith said the French president claimed that “the foreign media failed to understand ‘laïcité’, or secularism, a pillar of French politics and society.

Harsh rhetoric

National support for a firm line demanding that immigrants adopt “French” values ​​has been stronger than ever since satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republished the Prophet Muhammad cartoons in September.

The Prophet is deeply revered by Muslims, and any kind of visual representation of him is prohibited in Islam. The cartoons in question are viewed by Muslims as offensive and Islamophobic because they are seen to link Islam to “terrorism”.

The republication of the cartoons marked the start of the trial of those accused of aiding two men who launched a deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo in 2015, citing the magazine’s release of the same cartoons as the reason for the assault.

In the aftermath of the repost, a man injured two people with a meat cleaver on September 25 outside the former Charlie Hebdo offices.

Professor Samuel Paty, who had shown the cartoons to his class, was beheaded outside his school on October 16. And, on October 29, a man recently arrived from Tunisia killed three people with a knife in a church in Nice.

The attacks have sparked harsher rhetoric from Macron against what he calls “Islamist separatism.”

While paying homage to Paty, Macron defended the strict secularism of France and its long tradition of satire. “We will not give up cartoons,” he promised.

He reiterated his point in an interview with the Big Continent in which he said that, despite his respect for different cultures, “I am not going to change our laws because they are shocking elsewhere”.

“The fight of our generation in Europe will be a fight for our freedoms,” Macron said, adding that he believed they were “overthrown”.

Boycott French products

Meanwhile, thousands of people across the Muslim world have protested against Macron and his government, angered by the French leader’s words that Islam is a religion “in crisis” in the world, and by official French support. renewed the right to show the cartoons.

Some Islamic countries have called for a boycott of French products – but also by English-speaking newspapers and even international political allies.

The Financial Times published an article by a correspondent entitled: Macron’s war on “Islamic separatism” only divides France further.

The document then deleted the column, citing factual errors.

Defending France’s position in a letter to FT in which he denied stigmatizing Muslims, Macron wrote: “France – we are under attack for this – is as secular for Muslims as it is for Christians, Jews, Buddhists and all believers.



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