Bayrou defends the term “Islamophobia”, after the murder of a Muslim in a mosque

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RG (AVEC AFP)

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May 4, 2025 at 11:56 a.m.updated the

4 never 2025 to 1h29

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François Bayrou defended his job from the term on Saturday May 3 “Islamophobic” – Contested by part of the political class – After the murder of a Muslim in a mosque last week.

“You have to have the courage to say things as they are”said the Prime Minister in an interview published on Saturday evening on the site of the “Journal du Dimanche” (“JDD”), weekly owned by billionaire Vincent Bolloré.

“Refusing a word because we don’t want to look in front of reality is an attitude that I have already encountered in my political life. Here, the facts are clear: a 22 -year -old boy, murdered in a mosque while he prayed. And his attacker films his death by uttering insults against Allah. So I ask the question: if it is not hatred directed against Islam, what is it? Why refuse the right words? »»he adds.

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“I see the detestation of Muslims and Islam, the detestation of Jews and Judaism. And the detestation of Christians. With crimes in the three cases “he said again. After the assassination of Aboubakar Cissé, killed 57 stabs while he was in prayer in the Mosque of the Grand-Combe on April 25, the Prime Minister had denounced “Islamophobic ignominy” in a tweet.

Retailleau denounces the “ideological connotation” of the term

The term “Islamophobia” is practically not used by the right, which disputes it. “There is an ideological connotation of the term” Islamophobia “very marked vis-à-vis the Muslim Brotherhood, who means that in our ministry, we take the precaution not to use it”said Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau after the murder of Aboubakar Cissé.

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The future boss of the Les Républicains party has also published a booklet entitled “Do not give way: manifest against Islamism” (Editions de l’Observatoire), in which he denounces the term “Islamophobia” which “No longer aims to legitimately denounce acts of hostility towards Muslim populations” but who “Too often aims to neutralize any questioning about Islam, and even any warning on political Islamism”.

Questioned on April 27 on BFMTV of his different position with the head of government, Bruno Retailleau had swept: “In intention, it’s the same thing, we wanted to designate the same thing. »» Asked about the fact that his choice of word can give the feeling of lessening the reality of violence against Muslims, he denied: “It doesn’t detract from it. »»

Mélenchon’s turnaround

A large part of the left used it, but that was not the case a few years ago. “Admittedly,“ Islamophobic ”is a word that we do not like. Certainly, we prefer to fight the “hatred of Muslims”. But the question posed today is not at all that of the right or not to criticize a religion ”wrote Jean-Luc Mélenchon in 2019.

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At the time, the left was torn apart on the need to participate or not in a walk “Against Islamophobia” Organized by the collective against Islamophobia in France, dissolved since because accused of links with the Muslim Brotherhood. Insoumis now use this word very largely. “Let those who try to drown the subject against the backdrop of semantic acrobatics wake up”then lambasted the Rima Hassan MEP.

In 2021, the socialist deputy Jérôme Guedj explained to challenge this term which he considered as a “Eminently political and pernicious concept”. “The political battle always begins with the battle of words. This word allows them to include surreptitiously but methodically challenge secular laws ”he said then.

Its use is still not widespread everywhere on the left. The boss of the French Communist Party Fabien Roussel thus prefers the term to him “Antimusulman hatred”.