The confusion of the Muslims of France with the democracy of the only option The confusion of the Muslims of France with the democracy of the only option

The confusion of the Muslims of France with the democracy of the only option

The confusion of the Muslims of France with the democracy of the only option Election seasons give the masses of democracies the opportunity to express their preferences and withhold votes from undesirable candidates. But it is a privilege that does not apply to the millions of Muslim voters in France, who face a critical trade-off between the contestants for the Elysee.   Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the "France Proud" party, which calls for a "sixth republic", may seem more capable of attracting the Muslim vote in the first round of the presidential elections, but the bold politician from the far left comes in third place according to the polls and has never had the opportunity to cross into The second round despite his repeated attempts.  The competition will take place in the second round, as expected, between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, the leader of the "National Rally", unless there is a sudden breakthrough, and Muslim voters will then have no choice but to tip Macron's hand against Le Pen, who sits for them in every observatory.  The list of twelve presidential candidates gives the impression of a plurality of options, but the chances of choice available to the French in general in these elections remain limited, after the political center calculated on "moderation" was devoid of any name qualified to compete with Macron, while two candidates calculated on the far right (Le Pen) and the farthest Left (Melenchon) hardly catch up.  Polls expect an easy victory for Macron for a second term, even though he did not succeed in reviving his party from a structural point of view or achieving any gain in the regional and regional elections that were held last year.   Almost repeats the scene of Macron's rise five years ago, when the political center gave him the way, so that the "young politician" quickly climbed to the second round and defeated Le Pen.  But it is not the whole story. The extreme right has succeeded in imposing headlines and content, even if it did not lead the results and votes, because the competition in France has slipped in recent years towards the priorities of the far right, whose dominance over electoral concerns has grown, and it has been unprecedentedly capable of its rhythm systems in the political, media and online platforms .  This situation prompted the political center, including Macron and his team, to keep pace with the populist situation by trying to hunt votes through traditional addresses in which the far right invests.  Starting in 2020, Emmanuel Macron, along with figures from his government and his party, waged an escalation against Muslim citizens, claiming to combat “separatism”, “political Islam” and “extremism”, and cultural dictates saturated with exaggerated comments against manifestations of Muslim religious and cultural life continued under the pretext of “promoting” Secularism and consolidation of the principles of the republic.   This approach did not depart from a behavior that was enshrined in French political life, which has crept into obsession and is dominated by the rhetoric of extremism. The Macron team, whose popularity has deteriorated in recent years, realized early that its decisive electoral confrontation in the spring of 2022 would be with the far right, which necessitated it to flatter a mass mood. He was heated up in favor of extremism.  The French leadership has ensured that its escalatory behavior with Muslims receives the blessing of the political community and media outlets, and the presence of the extreme right on the scene is sufficient to grant an instrument of moderation to others in the political community, even if the populist situation is still in progress.  This influence has become relatively applicable to the extremist Marine Le Pen herself, who some see on the eve of the presidential elections (April 2022) as somewhat moderate just because someone more extremist than her appears on the scene.  Eric Zemmour, the leader of the "Repatriation" party, stands in his speech and positions to the right of Le Pen, and a few months before the presidential elections he had the best chance of crowding out his extremist rival after his lightning rise in the opinion polls before falling relatively far.  Zemmour's candidacy for the presidency remains the "scandal of French democracy", as stated on the cover of the left-wing newspaper "L'Omanite" after entering the electoral race. The Great Replacement” that inspired the Christchurch massacre of New Zealand Muslims in 2019.   Zemmour, for example, appeared a week before the first round of the presidential election, in a popular market in Marseille, to start warming up the voters, considering it an example of the alleged replacement taking place in the country.  The French polling rounds turned into a hotbed of extremist rhetoric and a fever of incitement overflowing from political and media platforms, putting Muslims and the state of cultural diversity in general at the center of its explicit or suggestive targeting. its pretexts, and he did not dare to warn the nation and society of its dangers or engage in a stern confrontation with it.  The matter reached a huge amount during the era of Macron, who participated in heating up the situation by talking about the dangers of “separatism” and “political Islam”, which are loose expressions that carried a reprehensible suggestive stigmatization of Muslims, their institutions and their population groups. With his simultaneous talk that "Islam is in crisis everywhere", a massive boycott campaign against French products mobilized.  The hawks of his administration contributed to the escalation of the obsession in the political and media platforms with regard to concealing the feelings of Muslim women, and the tendency extended to stigmatizing French academics, intellectuals and trade unionists critical of this decline as “Islamic left” in an effort to isolate and silence them, and the Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, dared to accuse the National Union of French Students The alleged "Islamic leftism", while Interior Minister Gerald Darmannan expressed his deep annoyance with halal products in French stores, in line with Macron's speeches, who criticized the presence of "religious menus" in school canteens, in reference to halal foods.  This slide in the Macron era prompted French intellectuals to warn against "state Islamophobia" and "Republican McCarthyism" targeting Muslims, in the words of political sociologist Jean-François Bayard.  The French political arena has not been open to the participation of the Muslim community component in it, and has tended to give priority to the logic of "the imminent danger to secularism or the culture of society", which may be posed by a Muslim mother who covers her hair while accompanying students on a school trip, according to the concerns of French legislators in 2019.  As soon as the students of the Sorbonne University elected their colleague, Mariam Pougetou, to head their union, ministers, representatives and commentators revolted against her whenever she appeared on the screen covered with hair or in a public forum.  When the political center behaves in this way and at the same time tolerates the racism of the far right if it is specific to Muslims, and the media collude with this situation, the impression formed by the new Muslim generations that it is a “democracy that is not ours”, in a way that seduces moral isolation from the Republic and despair of The possibility of influencing its election seasons. The bewilderment of French Muslims is an intense expression of a broader crisis, one of its manifestations is the erosion of traditional parties and the growing reluctance to vote in French society in general, to the extent that two-thirds of the French refrained from voting in the regional and regional elections that took place in 2021, and the abstention from participating in the presidential elections will reach a record As expected, despite the heat of competition.  The Muslims of France will find no justification for voting for Macron but the fear of an extremist alternative that threatens them with blatant discriminatory and exclusionary policies that go beyond all that has been previously tried. The predetermined result of this electoral battle remains that the dilemmas of French democracy are steadily exacerbating, regardless of the name of the president with whom the ballot boxes come out round after round.(Hossam Shaker, Media consultant and researcher in media and European affairs)

Election seasons give the masses of democracies the opportunity to express their preferences and withhold votes from undesirable candidates. But it is a privilege that does not apply to the millions of Muslim voters in France, who face a critical trade-off between the contestants for the Elysee.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the "France Proud" party, which calls for a "sixth republic", may seem more capable of attracting the Muslim vote in the first round of the presidential elections, but the bold politician from the far left comes in third place according to the polls and has never had the opportunity to cross into The second round despite his repeated attempts.

The competition will take place in the second round, as expected, between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, the leader of the "National Rally", unless there is a sudden breakthrough, and Muslim voters will then have no choice but to tip Macron's hand against Le Pen, who sits for them in every observatory.

The list of twelve presidential candidates gives the impression of a plurality of options, but the chances of choice available to the French in general in these elections remain limited, after the political center calculated on "moderation" was devoid of any name qualified to compete with Macron, while two candidates calculated on the far right (Le Pen) and the farthest Left (Melenchon) hardly catch up.

Polls expect an easy victory for Macron for a second term, even though he did not succeed in reviving his party from a structural point of view or achieving any gain in the regional and regional elections that were held last year.

Almost repeats the scene of Macron's rise five years ago, when the political center gave him the way, so that the "young politician" quickly climbed to the second round and defeated Le Pen.

But it is not the whole story. The extreme right has succeeded in imposing headlines and content, even if it did not lead the results and votes, because the competition in France has slipped in recent years towards the priorities of the far right, whose dominance over electoral concerns has grown, and it has been unprecedentedly capable of its rhythm systems in the political, media and online platforms .

This situation prompted the political center, including Macron and his team, to keep pace with the populist situation by trying to hunt votes through traditional addresses in which the far right invests.

Starting in 2020, Emmanuel Macron, along with figures from his government and his party, waged an escalation against Muslim citizens, claiming to combat “separatism”, “political Islam” and “extremism”, and cultural dictates saturated with exaggerated comments against manifestations of Muslim religious and cultural life continued under the pretext of “promoting” Secularism and consolidation of the principles of the republic.

This approach did not depart from a behavior that was enshrined in French political life, which has crept into obsession and is dominated by the rhetoric of extremism. The Macron team, whose popularity has deteriorated in recent years, realized early that its decisive electoral confrontation in the spring of 2022 would be with the far right, which necessitated it to flatter a mass mood. He was heated up in favor of extremism.

The French leadership has ensured that its escalatory behavior with Muslims receives the blessing of the political community and media outlets, and the presence of the extreme right on the scene is sufficient to grant an instrument of moderation to others in the political community, even if the populist situation is still in progress.

This influence has become relatively applicable to the extremist Marine Le Pen herself, who some see on the eve of the presidential elections (April 2022) as somewhat moderate just because someone more extremist than her appears on the scene.

Eric Zemmour, the leader of the "Repatriation" party, stands in his speech and positions to the right of Le Pen, and a few months before the presidential elections he had the best chance of crowding out his extremist rival after his lightning rise in the opinion polls before falling relatively far.

Zemmour's candidacy for the presidency remains the "scandal of French democracy", as stated on the cover of the left-wing newspaper "L'Omanite" after entering the electoral race. The Great Replacement” that inspired the Christchurch massacre of New Zealand Muslims in 2019.

Zemmour, for example, appeared a week before the first round of the presidential election, in a popular market in Marseille, to start warming up the voters, considering it an example of the alleged replacement taking place in the country.

The French polling rounds turned into a hotbed of extremist rhetoric and a fever of incitement overflowing from political and media platforms, putting Muslims and the state of cultural diversity in general at the center of its explicit or suggestive targeting. its pretexts, and he did not dare to warn the nation and society of its dangers or engage in a stern confrontation with it.

The matter reached a huge amount during the era of Macron, who participated in heating up the situation by talking about the dangers of “separatism” and “political Islam”, which are loose expressions that carried a reprehensible suggestive stigmatization of Muslims, their institutions and their population groups. With his simultaneous talk that "Islam is in crisis everywhere", a massive boycott campaign against French products mobilized.

The hawks of his administration contributed to the escalation of the obsession in the political and media platforms with regard to concealing the feelings of Muslim women, and the tendency extended to stigmatizing French academics, intellectuals and trade unionists critical of this decline as “Islamic left” in an effort to isolate and silence them, and the Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, dared to accuse the National Union of French Students The alleged "Islamic leftism", while Interior Minister Gerald Darmannan expressed his deep annoyance with halal products in French stores, in line with Macron's speeches, who criticized the presence of "religious menus" in school canteens, in reference to halal foods.

This slide in the Macron era prompted French intellectuals to warn against "state Islamophobia" and "Republican McCarthyism" targeting Muslims, in the words of political sociologist Jean-François Bayard.

The French political arena has not been open to the participation of the Muslim community component in it, and has tended to give priority to the logic of "the imminent danger to secularism or the culture of society", which may be posed by a Muslim mother who covers her hair while accompanying students on a school trip, according to the concerns of French legislators in 2019.

As soon as the students of the Sorbonne University elected their colleague, Mariam Pougetou, to head their union, ministers, representatives and commentators revolted against her whenever she appeared on the screen covered with hair or in a public forum.

When the political center behaves in this way and at the same time tolerates the racism of the far right if it is specific to Muslims, and the media collude with this situation, the impression formed by the new Muslim generations that it is a “democracy that is not ours”, in a way that seduces moral isolation from the Republic and despair of The possibility of influencing its election seasons. The bewilderment of French Muslims is an intense expression of a broader crisis, one of its manifestations is the erosion of traditional parties and the growing reluctance to vote in French society in general, to the extent that two-thirds of the French refrained from voting in the regional and regional elections that took place in 2021, and the abstention from participating in the presidential elections will reach a record As expected, despite the heat of competition.

The Muslims of France will find no justification for voting for Macron but the fear of an extremist alternative that threatens them with blatant discriminatory and exclusionary policies that go beyond all that has been previously tried. The predetermined result of this electoral battle remains that the dilemmas of French democracy are steadily exacerbating, regardless of the name of the president with whom the ballot boxes come out round after round.(Hossam Shaker, Media consultant and researcher in media and European affairs)

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