Egypt's Islamic academy criticizes Macron's Islamophobic comments
A renowned Islamic research center in Egypt has decried French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent Islamophobic comments as an “obvious call for racism and hate.”
Macron remarked this past Friday that his government was trying
to propose a bill to France’s parliament next year to solve what he called the
problem of “Islamist isolationism and separatism”.
According to this plan, France will try to fight what Macron
considers to be the favoring of religious laws over French republican and secular
"values".
Macron referred to Islam as “a religion that is today in
crisis all over the world.”
“Islam in France must be freed from foreign influence,” he added.
The Islamic Research Academy at a-Azhar (AIRA) immediately reacted
to his comments in a statement on Sunday, stating the French leader has
directed “false accusations that have nothing to do with the true context of
religion.”
The religious body stated that it completely rejects Macron’s
comments, which “destroy all joint efforts by religious figures to eliminate
racism and bullying against religions.”
The academy also stated that Islam promotes “tolerance and
peace” among people, even among those who do not follow this religion.
Additionally, it called for stopping all these attacks
against religions, as they obstruct constructive dialog and support hate
speech.
The French government recently came under fire when it
failed to decry French magazine Charlie Hebdo's republication of blasphemous
cartoons of Islam's prophet.
Countless people believed that the French government’s
silence was not to defend freedom of expression, but meant to encourage freedom
of hate speech against Muslims.
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