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COVID-19: Erring to Red Herring

What is currently happening in France is worrisome to say the least.  The only possible comparison that comes to mind is that of 1930s Germany, where an ambitious young populist decreed that Germans of Jewish faith were the enemies of the nation.  We know the terrible aftermath resulting in millions of deaths and unspeakable horrors.


Why then this recent speech by the French president and his decisions that followed?  Let's recall the facts: France is facing a serious pandemic. The French president's management of the crisis has been chaotic to put it mildly: delayed official response, flawed assessment of the danger, the mask scandal, contradictory decisions, etc.

The result: tens of thousands of deaths and a bad situation becoming critical with an exponential increase in infections and a lack of intensive care beds. What does the French president then do?  He declares war on "Muslim separatism" – he said "Islamist" but for him there is obviously no difference.  A few months earlier he had declared war on the coronavirus. (This is clearly a president who is fond of war). And then, quite extraordinarily, just days after this speech, a teacher who had showed highschool students blasphemous caricatures of Islam's prophet is murdered.

This now has become the pretext for this president and his government to take measures ranging from the arrest of citizens who have expressed dissatisfaction with that teacher, to the closure of private schools and mosques to the banning of civil society organizations, basically creating a climate of terror.

This rhetoric about the dangers of "Islamic separatism" and "Islamist extremism" is clearly being used for one purpose: to create a diversion in the face of popular discontent with a government that has completely failed in its management of the pandemic, resulting in 36,000 deaths (a death rate among the highest in the world) and an uncontrollable rise in coronavirus cases. 

The mistakes and miscalculations of this president, including the stigmatization of millions of French citizens based on their faith, are dangerous and are conducive to a climate of violence, insurrection and no end of excesses.

I would hope that the voices of all those who cherish freedom, peace and justice will rise to condemn such incompetence.

Benyounès Saidi

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