Rabat – French intellectual and political journalist Eric Zemmour argued on Monday that Muslims in France who name their child Mohammed and wear the veil are engaging in self-discrimination.
Zemmour’s comments came during a debate on February 10 with France’s Secretary of State for Gender Equality and Combating Discrimination, Marlene Schiappa, on the set of CNews.
Schiappa shared a statistic showing that people with a foreign-sounding name are 20 to 25% less likely to be hired in France.
Zemmour replied that “calling [a] child Mohammed … is self discrimination,” adding that “the parents should have called him Francois.”
The polemicist also referred to Muslim women wearing the hijab in France as an act of self-discrimination.
Zemmour recalled Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1803 naming law which originally stated that the only acceptable names in France are the names of saints in the Roman Catholic calendar, and later included the names of historical and mythological figures and names with regional significance.
France abolished the naming law in 1993 and parents are free to choose any name for their child, unless French officials decide a name goes against the best interests of a child.
Zemmour argued in his debate with Schiappa that France is “not McDonald’s.”
“We don’t come as we are, we assimilate into a dominant culture,” he insisted.
According to France’s branch of Sputnik News, the author has repeatedly criticized the French government for making laws against discrimination a question of “morals.”
According to Zemmour, “non-discrimination [laws are] a weapon of war in the service of an ideology” that is “not equality, but egalitarianism.”
Egalitarianism, he continued, is a doctrine that makes “victims for life.”
Schiappa retorted with a quote from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: “There is no moral phenomenon, there is only a moral interpretation of the phenomena.”
Anti-discrimination laws, Schiappa argued, are rooted in French values and aim to help anyone access a job and climb the social ladder solely based on merit and skills.
Towards the end of the debate, Schiappa evoked the theory of “great replacement.”
The official explained that the theory is based on creating fear and hatred towards each other and produced statistics showing that only 10% of children are born in France to immigrant couples.
“There will not be one people replaced by another,” Schiappa maintained.
A polarizing essayist and well-known media figure in France, Zemmour is most famous for his unabashed criticism of immigration and Islam.
Zemmour is a strong believer in France’s “assimilation” policy, maintaining that non-Judeo-Christian names like Mohammed put the survival of France’s history and culture in jeopardy.
Read also: Members of Political Party in France Create Controversy After Asking Hijabi Woman to Remove Veil
