Press Release
Liberté, Égatlité, Fraternité and Hypocrisy

When the right-wing French Minister of Internal Affairs Gerald Darmanin said that in December of 2020 that Allah is in no way superior to the French republic he in truth displayed the hypocrisy of French laicity. Now the French government has established a new interministerial commission for secularism that will develop into the ‘bureau of secularism’. An act that is clearly meant to teach Muslims to ‘love the republic’.

In a lengthy Twitter-thread of the ‘Committee to prevent crime and radicalization’, the Committee declared that the new committee announced that laicity is “freedom in the first place”. In truth, laicity is a French brand of secularism that is sober and draconic. French politicians have used secularism time and time again as a discriminatory instrument to oppress the growing Muslim population.

The commission for secularism also plans to convince Muslim women that secularism is a “means towards emancipation” and “women’s rights” to choose how they will practice their faith, in full or limited. After the announcement some were quick to point out that many Muslim girls at public schools have been denied their freedom to wear what they want after the hijab-ban in 2004 and that this, in reality, is a case of the hypocrisy of the French laicites.

As part of their proposals the state will also utilize civil servants that will inspect local politicians and encourage them to organize secular-themed events. The commission for secularism will also install the “the day of secularism” on the 9th of December, the birthday of the law in 1905 which established secularism in France. And all of this is in the name of a neutral stance of the French state versus the French citizen and vice versa.

This so-called neutrality has not been the case for a while and the opposite of this neutrality was proven by the attempted involvement in (religious) affairs that were not her business with the announcement of the manifest at the start of 2021 (a plan of a National Council of Imams as to monitor Islamic clergy in France).

This hypocritical stance of the West does not limit itself to France only. The decision of the European court to enable employers to ban their employees from wearing the headscarf, the publication of a controversial “Islam Map” (a publication of all the names, functions, addresses of Islamic institutions including their possible political ties abroad) by the Austrian government and the lack of media attention regarding anti-Islamic intentions and ideas of the Belgian military officer that was on the run a few weeks ago and was found dead at the end of June 2021 in Belgium are all cases of a European hostility against Islam.

Muslims in the West should be aware of the witch-hunt against Islam. They will not fully embrace a Muslim except if he is totally drenched with secular, democratic thought. The laicites make it clear that they have an all or nothing mentality when it comes to Muslims. Something of which the Muslims were already aware of when the following verse was revealed:

(وَلَن تَرْضَى عَنكَ الْيَهُودُ وَلاَ النَّصَارَى حَتَّى تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُمْ قُلْ إِنَّ هُدَى اللّهِ هُوَ الْهُدَى وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَاءهُم بَعْدَ الَّذِي جَاءكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ مَا لَكَ مِنَ اللّهِ مِن وَلِيٍّ وَلاَ نَصِيرٍ)

“And the Jews and Christians will never be pleased with until you follow their religion. Say: “Verily the guidance of Allah is the only guidance. And if you follow their desires after the knowledge has come to you, then for you against Allah there will be no “protector” nor helper”. [Al-Baqara: 120].

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in the Netherlands