France DOES have a problem with Islam, says Hollande
FRANCE has a ‘problem with Islam’ Francois Hollande has claimed.
The country’s socialist president also acknowledged that there is ‘too much’ immigration.
But in a series of mixed messages made over the last four years, he claimed increased integration could lead to the ‘veiled woman of today’ becoming the country’s national symbol.
All the claims were made over the course of 61 recorded interviews with two journalists who have now published them in a book called A President Should Not Say That…
The most controversial passages are about Muslims, in which Mr Hollande tells authors Gerard David and Fabrice Lhomme: ‘The fact that there is a problem with Islam is true. Nobody doubts that.
‘It’s not Islam itself that poses a problem for being a religion that is dangerous for the Republic but because it wants to assert itself as a religion inside the French Republic.’ Referring to ‘Marianne’, the mythical female symbol of French liberty, Mr Hollande said: ‘The veiled woman of today will become France’s Marianne of tomorrow.’
Talking of integration, Mr Hollande said:
‘Free themselves from the veil’
‘If we manage to provide the right conditions for her to flourish she will free herself from her veil and become French, while still remaining a believer if she wants to be, capable of carrying forth an ideal.
‘Ultimately, what bet are we making? It is that this woman will prefer freedom to slavery, that the veil can be a form of protection for her but that tomorrow she won’t need it to feel reassurance about her presence in society.’ The comment caused anger on the political Right, with Laurent Wauquiez of the opposition Republican party saying Mr Hollande was ‘willing to barter this symbol of the French Republic for political Islam.’
Mr Hollande also said there was a ‘fragmentation, an ethnicisation’ in the French national football team.
He claimed: ‘There is no attachment in this France team. They are guys from the estates, with no references, no values...’
He said the players were poorly educated and not ‘psychologically prepared to know the difference between good and evil’.
In fact, Paris-born Muslim footballers such as Paul Pogba – who plays for Manchester United – are among the most successful in the world. He is known for his exemplary off-field behaviour – as is the clean living Riyad Mahrez, of Leicester and Algeria, who was brought up in Paris.
Immigration is a key theme ahead of next year’s presidential election, which has echoes of the US race for the White House, and far-Right leader Marine Le Pen is riding high in the polls. A string of jihadist attacks in France coupled with the Europe-wide migrant crisis have stoked anti-immigration feelings.
A debate about Muslim integration came to a head in the summer when 30 French towns banned the burkini swimsuit although judges later ruled it violated basic freedoms. Hollande has not yet declared whether he intends to stand for re- election. But Nicolas Sarkozy, bidding for the centre-right nomination, is campaigning heavily on anti-immigration themes.
Former minister Bruno Le Maire, who served in the Sarkozy administration, posted on Twitter: ‘Yesterday, like tomorrow, the Marianne will never be veiled!’