Ambassador: French President Fights Radical Islamists, Not Muslims

Jakarta, MINA – Ambassador of the French Republic to Indonesia Olivier Chambard explained that the purpose of French President Emmanuel Macron’s speech on 2 October 2020 was to fight radical Islamists, not Muslims.

“The President of the French Republic has clearly set the goal of this strategy: an ideology, namely radical Islamism that needs to be resisted,” Olivier said in a special interview with the MINA team in Jakarta on Wednesday.

He explained that there is a difference between the peaceful and moderate majority of French Muslims, and a militant minority that is separatist in nature, who ignore the law and are hostile to the values of the French Republic.

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“This last group is also a burden for the majority of French Muslims. I want to say it again clearly: the first victims of radical Islamism are Muslims themselves, ”he said.

Macron’s speech came after the attacks on Conflans Sainte-Honorine on 16 October and in the city of Nice on 29 October that left three people dead.

Macron also reaffirmed “laicite” (French secularism) as a guarantee of freedom of conscience (to believe or not believe in God) and freedom of religion.

“The President of the French Republic reminded the importance of laicité, the glue of the French Republic, which is the foundation of religious freedom, which enables each religious community to practice worship, and maintains the neutrality of the State towards all religions,” said Ambassador Olivier.

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According to him, all democratic countries and almost all member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) are fighting against this radical Islamism, which is often the incubator of terrorism. “This has happened in France over the last few years, as in Indonesia,” he said. (L / RE1 / RA-1 / R1 / R9)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)