France, which suffered four bloody
terrorist attacks in less than two years, is attempting to restore
balance within the country and calm the public opinion that currently
borders on Islamophobia.
sputniknews.com reports:
On August 29, the French Interior Ministry held a 'consultations
day on Islam in France', as Minister Bernard Cazeneuve himself met with
prominent French MPs and Muslim community leaders to discuss important
issues related to this religion.
Abdallah Zekri, Secretary General of the French Council of the Muslim
Faith, told Sputnik that the minister admitted that the recent row
involving a ban on Islamic female swimwear burkini must be finally laid
to rest. He also added that Cazeneuve and the Muslim representatives in
attendance also discussed the creation and future activities of the new
Islamic foundation which will hopefully help improve relations between
France’s Muslim community and French society in general.
We asked him to ensure that political parties stick to politics and
stop constantly talking about Islam and Muslims, because the uneasy
time of elections is nearly upon us. And I’m pleased to see that the
rightists are already split. Let them split further, let them leave
Muslims and Islam alone. Let the French Muslims be at least a little bit
respected – they’re French citizens, even more so than some of the
others," Zekri declared.
He also said that French society apparently has weakened under all of
the pressure it has been subjected to lately, and that people should
stop focusing their attention on Islam at the expense of other important
issues.
"I would like the upcoming election debates to be focused on the
economic crisis, social crisis, moral crisis, unemployment and France’s
financial problems, instead of focusing on Muslims, hijabs, burkas and
pork-free school menus. I want people to stop using Islam to cover their
weaknesses, to conceal the obvious failure which is currently being
experienced by France’s political parties," Zekri surmised.
