"Islam Faces Global Crisis"
Law to Strengthen Separation of Politics and Religion to Be Prepared Within the Year...Crackdown on Foreigners' Proselytizing Activities Within the Country
[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he will soon introduce a bill to further strengthen the law on the separation of church and state in response to Islamic separatism, amid repeated terror threats from Islamic extremists.
According to AFP and other sources on the 2nd (local time), President Macron visited Les Mureaux, a large immigrant residential area in the suburbs of Paris, and stated that he would protect French values against radical Islamism. He said he would announce a bill in December to further strengthen the 1905 law that officially established the separation of religion and politics.
The bill is expected to include measures to strengthen supervision of private school curricula to prevent students from being indoctrinated by Islamic extremism and to prohibit homeschooling except for health reasons. Additionally, community associations receiving state subsidies will be required to pledge adherence to secularism and French values.
Furthermore, President Macron emphasized the need for Islam in France to break free from external influences such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey. To this end, he announced plans to verify foreign financial support for mosques, regulate overseas training of imams (Islamic clergy), and control foreign preachers' proselytizing activities within French territory.
President Macron stated, "Islam is facing a crisis not only in this country today but globally," pointing out that extremists are indoctrinating converts throughout France, which has the largest Muslim population in Europe. He criticized Islamic separatism for ignoring French rules by prioritizing their own laws and regulations as 'anti-social' values above all else.
Macron explained that the measures in the new bill are not intended to stigmatize or alienate Muslims in France but rather to improve the ability to live together. He said, "We ourselves created separatism. We concentrated populations by their origins, failed to secure sufficient diversity, and did not guarantee economic and social mobility."
France has been suffering from successive attacks by radical Islamists since the 2015 Charlie Hebdo terror attack. On the 25th of last month, an 18-year-old man of Pakistani origin wielded a knife near the former Charlie Hebdo office in Paris's 11th arrondissement, injuring one man and one woman, reportedly out of dissatisfaction with the magazine.
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