Macron’s anti-Muslim fake news in the FT needs urgent correcting – Middle East Eye

Any political strategist hoping to get a controversial message across to an educated audience would be hard-pressed to look beyond a letter in theFinancial Timesfrom the president of France. TheFTis widely viewed as a peerless newspaper of record one read by power brokers everywhere whilethechefdetatof the French republic is one of the most powerful chief executives on earth.

Hence, EmmanuelMacronwas taken very seriously indeed when hespreadfake newsabout his countrysfive million Muslimsin theFTlast November. In a fewtoxicparagraphs, he conjured up a picture of lawless council estates whereMuslimparents arepoisoning the minds of little girls whilecoveringtheir bodiesunderburkas.

The problem was that hardly anything thatMacronwrote was true. The president had simply reproduced despicable tropes with no facts to support them

Without a shred of evidence, the president wrote:Visit the districts where small girls aged three or four are wearing a full veil, separated from boys, and, from a very young age, separated from the rest of society, raised in hatred of Frances values.

The presidentalso statedthatthese childrenspend their time in hellhole communities surrounded by hundredsof radicalised individuals, who we fear may, at any moment, take a knife and kill people. Introducingdisturbingbiologicalreferences into his narrative,Macronsaid these areas were breeding grounds for terrorists in France.

If the purpose of thissulphurous prosewas to spread collective guilt, itcertainly had the desired effect. An actual president had confirmed what venal propagandists have been saying for years that France has been overrun by alien hordes, and that murderous, cradle-to-grave radicalism is widespread. Everyone from anonymous social media trolls with swastika avatars to the kind of racist pop-philosophers who currently dominate French political thinking now had the presidents backing.

The letter was a particularly important one, and received much international publicity, becauseMacronwas also using ittoaccuse theFTof fake news. He was angry about anFTcolumn that, he claimed,had misrepresented his position on Islam. The article byanFTcorrespondent waswiped off theFTwebsite, while the presidentswriting billed byMacronhimself as a collection of simple facts was published in full.

The problem was that hardly anything thatMacronwrote was true. The president had simply reproduced despicable tropes with no facts to support them. We now know this for surebecause, four months on, nobody hasbeen ableto provide a scrap ofevidence to prove Macrons wicked deceit neither the French authorities, nor the FT.

Financial Times investigating complaint over Macron's claims aboutFrench Muslims

Followingreaders queries, theFTput barrister Greg Callus, the newspaperscomplaints commissioner, on the case.He was asked to justify a letter that continues to do untold harm to French Muslims, butafter an excruciatingly lengthy process, hasnot been able to do so.

Callus launched an investigation last December, and it was onlyin March that his convoluted adjudication was published. It stated:I must admit that I myself washighly scepticalof one aspect of this claim, namely the use of the term full veil being used in respect of the head-coverings worn by girls of this age.

The defamation lawyer added that these claims trouble me and that I might still not be content to positively assert that these facts are true or have been established definitively.Yet, Callus stopped short of correcting or apologising for these untruths, saying he hadno general jurisdiction to fact-check or adjudicate statements by world leaders or others who appear in the news.

FT editor Roula Khalaf has in fact opposed a Society of Editors statement about the alleged lack of bigotry in the media, noting: There is work to be done across all sectors in the UK to call out and challenge racism. The media has a critical role to play, and editors must ensure that our newsrooms and coverage reflect the societies we live in.

In light of the Callus adjudication, Khalafs words might sound hollow and hypocritical. This is especially the case now that Macrons incendiary allegations have been exposed.

In fact,the burka(or niqab) a full-veil garment thatcovers a womans body, including her face,apart from the eyes isactually banned in France,andanyone would face a possible prison sentence if they forced a child to wear one. There is not a single recorded incident ofa child in a burka, let alone any prosecutions or convictions.

The urban myth that Muslims hide their offspring away,while teaching them to hate, is similarly obscene.This simply plays into macabre legends about communities who prey on the young, including their own.

Instead, calls to relevant bodies from Frances InteriorMinistry, to police and prosecutors havenot yielded supporting facts. Sources there were all baffled by suchsensational andrecklessfantasies onesthat would instantly make front-page news if they were true.In an era when cameras are everywhere, there are no images to back upMacronsfabricationsabout these infant sociopaths either.

More than four months on, shining a light on such chronic perversions of the truth is particularly important, because they continue to play avenomous part in mainstream French politics.

Both Le Pen and Darmanin have disgraceful records for Muslim-baiting, and were more than happy to show off their prejudices to a mass audience

Earlier this year, far-rightNational Rally leader Marine Le Pen sparred with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin in a live TV debate about which one of them is toughest on Islam. They were ostensibly discussing the place of religion in a secular republic, and how to deal with criminals who aredrawn toterrorism, but as usual, the spreading of collective guilt took precedence.

The terms Islam and Islamist were regularly interchanged, asMuslims per se were portrayed as adangerousunderclass largely made up of savage misfitsprone to suicidal barbarism.

There was no mention of the most high-profile lone-wolf terrorist outrages of last year being carried out by a Russian Chechen, a Tunisian and aPakistani instead, the implication was thatMacrons breeding ground estates on the edges of major cities, such as Paris and Marseille, produce all the knifemen.

Both Le Pen and Darmanin have disgraceful records for Muslim-baiting, and were more than happy to show off their prejudices to a mass audience of voters.Le Pen and her father, the convicted racist, antisemite and Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen, are past runners-up in elections to become president of France. Both represented the National Front, now known as the National Rally, a party founded by extreme nationalists who supported Nazism and Frances collaborating Vichy regime during the Second World War, and indeed by those furious about an independent Algeria.

The partys current incarnation remains a dynastic vehicle for the Le Pens, with Marine Le Pen currently the favourite to once again go head to head withMacronin the 2022 presidential election, just as she did in 2017.

This is whyMacroncovetsLe Pen votes, and is moving so drastically to the right as he tries totake them. Demonising minority groups by using weasel words is very important to this objective, as is obvious from the passage through parliament ofMacrons draft measures seeking to tackle radicalism.

Macronoriginally called it a bill to combat Islamist separatism a concept that fitted in neatly with the kind of Muslim estatesdepicted in hisFTletter but now it is described as legislationbolstering the respect of the principles of the Republic.

Suchrhetorical tweaks have not stopped theMacronadministration from proposing much stricter controls on Muslims, however.Closer monitoringof the perceived enemy within rangesfromtougherrules on the funding of religious organisations, tobanning home-schooling for Muslim children (even in the middle of a global pandemic, when such classes are being encouraged for all others).

The emphasis is on increased security, and the usual crackdowns on those whodisplaytheir religious affiliation via their choice of clothing, for example. Thus,another spectacular inaccuracy inMacronsFTletter was hisclaimthat the French statenever intervenes in religious affairs.

How Macron has become the champion of the far right

Perhaps the most disingenuous, however, wasMacronsallegation that I will not allow anybody toclaimthat France, or its government, is fostering racism against Muslims.

As with somuchof the presidents double-speak, it is not worth the pink paper it is written on, despite its promotion by certain sections of Frances media.

British outlets should know better.TheFTis not a member of IPSO, Britains regulatory Independent Press Standards Organisation, but claims to adhere to the IPSO Code in relation to accuracy and accountability. In such circumstances, theFTshould stop its complicity in spreading hatred against entire Muslim communities in France, andstand up for the truthby apologising and publishingfact-based corrections toMacrons letter.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

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Macron's anti-Muslim fake news in the FT needs urgent correcting - Middle East Eye