It’s wrong to discriminate against any group, but it does no good for Chems-eddine Hafiz, the rector of Paris’s Grande Mosquée to make the absurd claim that innocent Muslims are being treated as scapegoats and comparing them to how Jews were treated in the 1930s.
And while Hafiz says he “was the first to condemn Islamist terrorism and his mosque was at the heart of work to combat radicalisation in France,” he also condemns “certain candidates” who have “spoken of the ‘problem’ of Islam, linking Islam to immigration or to terrorism….at every election in France.”
His words disconnecting Islam from terrorism and ignoring the hijrah are clichés. There are 1400 years of proof of a link between Islam and violence and terrorism. Unvetted mass migration into France has seen jihadists and Islamic supremacists infiltrate refugee streams. Masses of illegal economic Muslim migrants have also entered Western countries. The problems of jihad preaching in mosques (many of which are funded by foreign interests), of Islamic supremacists persistently attacking the freedom of speech, and of the general lack of action by Muslims against jihadis is obvious. The Sharia, which is considered to be divine law in Islam, is not compatible with the principles of free societies in the West, so those who abide by the aspects of Sharia which are incompatible with democracy present a problem that is in need of public discussion. Yet such discussions are deemed “Islamophobic” by Islamic supremacists and their Leftist allies.
Muslims are not hated for merely being Muslim. Some people protest the persistent efforts by Islamic leaders to encroach upon the freedom of expression. France has suffered the most horrifying jihad attacks and assaults against human rights. Teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded for insulting Muhammad. A priest was beheaded during mass (he was on a jihadi hit list of Catholic churches), and the Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015 left 17 dead and at least 22 injured. There has also been a string of other jihad attacks: stabbings on public transit, vehicle rammings, shootings, bomb plots. Jihad Watch has a file on the schoolgirl Mila, who had to go into hiding amid the most violent threats because she offended Islam online, calling it a “religion of hate.” 11 Muslims were ultimately convicted for threatening and tormenting Mila, who stated that she felt as if she had been condemned to death, and indeed she was.
Quran 8:12 – “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”
The collective Muslim response has been most disturbing. In response to the gruesome slaughter of Paty, the outcry from Muslims was against France and Emmanuel Macron for honoring Paty’s right to exercise his freedom of speech. They showed no anger toward the jihadis who plotted Paty’s murder and executed him.
Hafiz should be opposing the persistent Islamic attacks on French society and protecting French values, if he indeed regards Muslims as “children of the Republic.” But that would depend on what he means by “children of the Republic.” Does he respect French culture, its constitution, its history, and its right to the freedom of expression? Does he view Muslims as equals to non-believers? These are key questions. The French constitution separates religion and the state, and regards the freedom of expression as a core principle of the French state.
Islamic leaders have been infringing upon the rights and principles of free societies all over the West. No other religion besides Islam poses a danger to citizens whenever Islam is insulted or its adherents are offended. In fact, Jews are leaving France in droves to escape violent Islamic antisemitism. And when they make aliyah to Israel, they are still in danger, because of the Islamic jihad against the State of Israel, which is nearly universally presented as a “resistance” against Israeli oppression.
“Anti-Islam rhetoric in French election risks ‘spiral of hatred’, says Paris mosque rector,” by Angelique Chrisafis, Guardian, March 27, 2022:
A rise in anti-Islam rhetoric in the French presidential election campaign risks creating a “spiral of hatred”, scapegoating law-abiding Muslims in a similar way to the discourse against Jews in the 1930s, the rector of the Paris mosque has said.
“I’m extremely worried,” said Chems-eddine Hafiz, the rector of Paris’s historic Grande Mosquée. “We’re in a society that is fractured and searching for itself, a society that is weakened and fearful after the pandemic. The fact of looking for a scapegoat – there have been precedents to that: in 1930 when the finger began to be pointed at Jews who became ‘the problem of a whole society’ … Today it’s no longer Jews, it’s Muslims … I thought in the 21st century we’d be safe from that type of discourse.”
Hafiz published a book this month, With All Due Respect, We’re Children of the Republic, to counter what he called heightened anti-Muslim rhetoric sweeping across the French right during the election campaign….
All candidates on the right have referenced a mood of fear in France after the Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris 2015 and the horror of the decapitation of a French secondary schoolteacher, Samuel Paty, in 2020.
Hafiz said he was the first to condemn Islamist terrorism and his mosque was at the heart of work to combat radicalisation in France. But he feared that the majority of law-abiding Muslim French citizens were being conflated with terrorist attacks, despite often being the victims of terrorism themselves.
“For several years now, at every election in France, certain candidates have spoken of the ‘problem’ of Islam, linking Islam to immigration or to terrorism,” he told the Guardian.
“French Muslims have faced stigmatisation or insults or the view that Islam is incompatible with the rules of the French Republic, or with the west. But in this election, it’s much more serious because there is a candidate who completely lets loose and talks of the ‘great replacement’ and who affirms with vehemence that Islam and Muslims can’t stay in France, that their place is elsewhere, and if they want to stay in this country they must no longer practise their religion.”
Hafiz said other candidates on the right appeared to compete with Zemmour on Islam, such as during Les Républicains’ internal primary race to choose a candidate. He said that despite the main concerns of French voters being issues such as making ends meet, it had become “almost fashionable” for candidates “to criticise Islam and Muslims, to see them as non-desirables who are dangerous or who bring insecurity.”…
Shawn says
Everything said in this article is completely true,Islam is not wanted and it’s time they go back to their deserts and fight for them.
mortimer says
Trivializing the horrendous magnitude and shocking sadism of the Holocaust.
CogitoErgoSum says
I say read the Koran and see what it says. Muslims hold the Koran up as being the final word on all that they believe. Now, true, it is a jumbled mess and difficult in places to understand but it holds the final say in matters concerning Islam – according to Muslims themselves. So anytime a Muslim tells you anything about Islam it should be in accordance with the Koran. The Koran says being a Muslim is to fight until all religion is for Allah and only Allah can change that. Fighting unbelievers by any means possible is this man’s religion. He will do whatever he can to make you submit to his religion. It is what his god tells him to do. It’s his problem if he chooses to submit to Islam and to follow a life of endless fighting when he lives in a country which allows him other choices.
mortimer says
This is Islamic Victimology 101 … in Arabic, the phrase is ‘TAMASKAN TATAMAKAN’ … ‘show a victim’s face and you will win’.
The Koran has more anti-Semitism in it than Mein Kampf. The hatred of the ‘other’ is preached on every page of the Koran. 164 jihad verses in the Koran make it clear that Muslims are to attack kafirs, take their property and enslave their women and children. Anyone who refuses Islam is to be persecuted.
Rev. Dr Mark Durie writes: “Islamic theology impacts culture through its victimology language: Tamaskan tatamakan = “Show a victim’s face, and you will take over”.
The theological roots of this saying are complex, but the cultural habit is clear and simple.
Act the victim, and then after a while, you’ll take over the other person. So we are interacting. I pretend that I’m in a bad situation and I’m suffering. You have pity on me and when the money comes, I destroy you.” – Mark Durie, PhD
.
tim gallagher says
The usual total bullshit you get from Muslim spokesmen. Muslims carry out their endless terrorist attacks, they always have their rape gangs, they are always involved in crimes of all types at a higher level than other migrant groups and yet they seem to expect that they will be allowed to get away with their evil, barbaric behaviours. It is a mystery to me how they can think that they will get away with all their disgusting behaviours and that people won’t notice and wake up to the malignant nature of Islam. Muslims are not some bunch of innocent scapegoats. They deserve all the hatred that they cop because their own evil, disgusting behaviours are the reason that people eventually wake up and begin to loathe them. If Muslims want to be liked, then they should change their evil behaviours, but, unfortunately, that will never happen because it is all basic islam, straight out of that foul book, the Koran.
PRCS says
“seem to expect that they will be allowed to get away with their evil, barbaric behaviours”
Because so many “unbelievers”–ignorant about Islam–have and still do let them get away with it.
SAFI says
Well, Muslim activists are prepared to do anything it their power to stop the spreading of islamophobia(up to and including beheading their critics) except for one thing: changing their evil ways.
Infidel says
Mosques have ‘rectors’? Since when? Sounds like those muslim ‘chaplains’ in the US military: this would be ‘bida’ in islam, and therefore frowned upon!
somehistory says
I question the “rector” part too.
gravenimage says
Good point–but Musims will (in the short term, at least)–adopt such terms because it makes Muslims seem more like other civilized Westerners.
somehistory says
He ‘was the first” to condemn islam’s terrorism? He must be really old and did he condemn it to the slime’s war-mongering face?
This is all just a lying whine…mozlums lie, threaten, attack and then whine when someone objects to the lies, threats and attacks. They expect the whining to lead to more suppression of the freedom of speech, to say what is wrong with islam, to point out the dangers of so many mozlums coming in and having so many children as to overwhelm the rest of the population; and they expect it to make it easier for them to kidnap, rape and murder those who disagree with the force and dangers of islam being foisted upon an entire nation of people.
And, they complain of “hatred, anti-mozlum rhetoric and insults.” Well, by cracky, that’s a heck of a lot better than being kidnapped, raped, and murdered.
Without the freedom to speak, the freedom to make choices, the freedom to reject a program of lies, terror of all sorts, and the subjugation that mozlums want to impose on others, there is not much *life* left in a people.
and, the history of the ’30s tells us that mozlums were deep into the pit of hatred and murder of hitler’s desires. They were fomenting the murder of Jews as those *responsible* for the world’s problems. And they still are to this day.
mortimer says
Even the French Left is against Islam now. They have snapped out of their DELUSIONAL DREAM that Islam is an ally of Leftism.
The French are now massively reacting to many years of unrelenting Muslim terrorism against ordinary French people. They have finally had enough of it and they have gradually lost the fear of being called bigots. No one in France wants to hire a Muslim or rent an apartment to a Muslim. Too much potential of betrayal by the Muslim and false drama.
The breaking point for France came following the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish deli in Paris. In the aftermath, the jihadic violence CONTINUED and INCREASED, rather than abating. Many Muslims in France and Europe actually saw the Charlie Hebdo as a TURNING POINT in favor of jihad, rather than a turning point AWAY FROM ISLAM.
gravenimage says
THe Grand Mosque of Paris claimed that they were going to hold an anti-terrorism rally after the Jihad terror attacks there in 2015, but then they backed out:
https://www.news24.com/news24/anti-terror-rally-at-paris-mosque-cancelled-for-security-reasons-20151119
somehistory says
He should be asked, “If you *condemn* it, then why don’t you leave it?” He should be confronted with the fact that if he truly was against islamist terrorism, he would not continue to be a mozlum and lie on the behalf of those who are steeped in this garbage of lies, threats, rape and murder.
He is engaged in his own “islamist terror.”
mortimer says
This mullah knows that JIHADISM is a CORE BELIEF of Islam … he is lying to himself by trying to reform Islam by removing a core teaching.
Without JIHADISM, Islam ceases to be Islam.
Mohammed said, ‘I was commanded to fight the people (of the earth) until they become Muslims’.
That cannot be cut out of the heart of Islam without killing Islam entirely.
gravenimage says
Mortimer, I don’t think that Chems-eddine Hafiz is “lying to himself”–instead, he is *lying to us*.
He has said that Muslims are all good citizens of France and that it is just ‘Islamophobes’–he did not use this exact term, but this is what he meant–said otherwise, completely ignoring the wave of Jihad terrorism in France and the rest of Europe. He claims that Muslims are just the victims of hate speech.
He has also said that Imams have to counter those non-Muslims who dare “unveil Islam”.
gravenimage says
Grand mosque rector slams French leaders for ‘scapegoating’ Muslims like Jews in the 1930s
………….
As if Jews were slaughtering Gentiles in the 1930s–and as if expressing concern over Muslims murdering Infidels is Auschwitz. Just appalling calumny.
But Jihadists are just hoping to take advantage of the Holocaust. This is all the more grotesque given Muslims targeting Jews for victimization–often, in fact, threatening them with a new Holocaust. Cynical and evil.
Michael says
You say mosques and madrassahs, are funded by foreign interests. If you mean the Saudi or Qatar state or private please say so.
In Algeria, moderate Muslims are the first to finger Saudi, as the reason for the lurch towards extreme Islam / civil war.
Including Yacef Saadi, the Berber ‘freedom fighter’ imprisoned by the French who wrote and co-produced La Bataille d’Alger.
gravenimage says
The Saudis and Qatar are not the only Muslim states funding Mosques and Madrassahs. Pakistan is also a major funder, but not the only one.
Then, the reason that France was in Algeria to begin with was that they would not stop waging Jihad piracy against European and other Infidels. The idea that this is all due to the Saudis is mistaken–“extreme Islam”–really, orthodox Islam–much predates the existance of Saudi Arabia.