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Denver – The French government continues to escalate its barrage of attacks on Islamism, with increasingly frequent moves to close pro-Islamic organizations.
On Friday, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin posted a tweet confirming and supporting the closure of two prominent French-Islamic organizations. Darmanin stated one of France’s highest judicial bodies, the Council of State, supported the motions to close Muslim NGO Baraka City and the anti-islamophobia group Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF).
“The fight against Islamist ideology is reaching a decisive stage,” Darmanin concluded in his social media post.
The news follows French authorities’ decision earlier this month to also close Nawa Editions publishing house, a top Islamic literary publishing company. On Twitter, the French Interior Minister alleged Nawa was involved in the “distribution of several works legitimizing the jihad,” while failing to provide substantial evidence to support his claim.
Arguing that the decision was purely political, Nawa has accused the French government of taking an anti-Islamic direction to win support among right-leaning populations in France.
While the company’s catalog includes literature on Islamic historical figures and religious customs, there is very little evidence suggesting it contains literature that sympathizes with or celebrates jihadist sentiments. In addition to closing the publishing house decision, French authorities have frozen the assets of Nawa and lead writers Aissam Ait Yahya and Abu Souleiman Al Kaabi.
Baraka City and CCIF were among the first Muslim groups to experience the growing “anti-Islamist” wrath of the French government. CCIF was among the only advocacy groups in France that were actively tracking the sharp rise in anti-Islamic attacks and Islamophobic discourse throughout the country.
French shut down both CCIF and Baraka City last year after the murder of a French school teacher, with authorities accusing the two organizations of spreading Islamist ideology. Both organizations were forced to suspend activities in the country, and Darmanin even labeled CCIF an “enemy of the republic.”
The French government’s recent actions continue to concern both ordinary Muslims and anti-Islamophobia advocates, with many accusing the French political establishment of increasing their anti-Islamic sentiment ahead of the 2022 presidential elections.
French right-wing extremist and Islamophobe Marine Le Pen currently leads the 2022 presidential poll by a substantial margin, while Eric Zemmour, a controversial political journalist whose entire political project is to “save France and French values from an Islamist invasion,” has been announced as one of the most promising candidates.
Zemmour has not yet confirmed his electoral ambitions, but he has repeatedly claimed that the majority of French are alarmed by the increasing “defrancization of France” and have “asked me to run for president to save the country.”
With President Emmanuel Macron’s disapproval ratings on the rise, many French Muslims and their left-leaning fellow citizens worry their country is now headed towards a radically anti-Islamic political future.
