Opinion Analysis by Tala Karkanawi, Contributor

April 15th, 2021

A proposition by the French Senate to ban girls under 18 years from wearing the Hijab in public caused a huge controversy amongst the French and the majority of Muslim countries. #HandsOffMyHijab started circulating widely on social media with the hope of raising awareness of the situation. The Hijab is a headscarf worn by women who follow the faith of Islam that symbolizes modesty, privacy, and the idea that women are way more than their looks only. However, the French government tends to look at this situation in a completely different way. 

The French Senate’s strategy is part of their “anti-separatism” bill which intends to strengthen their ideology of secularism and the separation of religion and state. However, it has been expressed widely that France is taking it way too far with their focus solely on Islam and the Muslim population in France. 

The hatred and Islamophobia increased greatly when Samuel Paty, a French teacher, was murdered by a Chechen refugee, after the teacher portrayed a Charlie Hebdo caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in class. This increased the French population’s hatred and despair towards the Muslim minority in the country. 

France’s Muslim population find themselves in the middle of an extremely controversial debate that holds their religion, their faith, and their belief in contempt that slanders and denigrates them in politics, social media, and so much more.

However, the president is particularly and clearly intending on increasing the flames of hatred and Islamophobia around the country with the upcoming laws that will be deemed unconstitutional anyways. Nevertheless, there is a clear strategy and a goal behind this; Emmanuel Macron feels that his electorate is deserting him for Marine Le Pen, France’s main far-right party. Marine Le Pan tried to run twice for the presidency, but lost to Macron in 2017 which damaged her political figure badly. Nonetheless, the polls are showing that she is closer to the presidency than ever. This increased the tensions within Macron’s party, leading him into adopting a lesson from the far-right’s lectures.  

Macron’s policies did not exactly that gain the support and love from the people. France is suffering from a long-term social crisis, which increased greatly because of Macron’s failed policies and regulations. In the year of 2018, riots and uprisings took place in France with major public sectors struck by the ‘Gilet Jaunes’ (yellow vests). The capital immediately turned into a battlefield with a hope of a resignation from the French president. 

Moreover, major demonstrations about plenty of other disputes such as pension reforms, fuel prices, police-brutality and high levels of unemployment took place in the year of 2019. The riots turned extremely violent which caused a huge uprising and tensions between the people and the police. In addition, one of the longest public transportation strikes in France took place which damaged the economy for a while. 

The support decreased greatly from a rate of 60% until 23% in December of 2018. Before the pandemic assembled and damaged the French society, the President had an approval rate with a slight increase of 33%, yet, it is very clear that the people are angry. The way Macron treated and handled the COVID-19 crisis at the beginning did not help him or his party during the June public elections, in which he suffered greatly with a huge defeat against the Greens movement in multiple large cities in France. 

The presidential election is planned for April 2022, and President Macron is apparently running out of a great deal of support and time to try and stabilise himself and his political party. Marine Le Pen’s far-right party is gaining plenty of support from the French because of her extremely far-right ideologies, including anti-immigration, anti-Islam, and so much more. Le Pen is coming off strong especially with her position in ‘denouncing Islamism’, and trying to ‘save’ women from the ‘oppression’ of the Hijab. 

Marine Le Pen’s discriminatory ways of trying to win the French’s support is working, hence Macron’s attempt of trying to use the same strategy coming into place – coming after the Muslim community in France. With an obvious increase in Le Pen supporters, Macron knows that attacking Muslims electrifies the supporters of the far right and sways them to his side, which is his ultimate goal. 

Macron does not seem to care about how this makes him look to the international community, as long as his secures his seat in the upcoming 2022 elections. He also addressed his nation in October 2020, insisting that the religion of Islam is going through a ‘crisis’ and the people need to be ‘saved’ from this ‘radical’ religion. 

The rise of Islamophobia in France will not decrease anytime soon as long as President Macron and Le Pen are fighting eye to eye for the presidential seat. To all the Muslim community in France, this is not a personal war against you, but an unfortunate political war that is coming at your expense. As long as the government and the people remain with their outdated, and radical ideology of a Religion that literally translates into ‘Peace’ and ‘Serenity’, France will remain light years away from truly protecting religious freedom in the country, which is a core principle in the French’s constitution.