On September 26, a Pakistani-born teenager injured two people with a meat cleaver outside of the former Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. And on Friday, a French history teacher was decapitated after receiving threats for showing students cartoons of Mohammad in the context of a discussion of freedom of speech. France’s President Emmanuel Macron, shortly before the beheading, had given a forceful speech about the dangers of Islamism to French society. Praising his words, Ayaan Hirsi Ali urges Macron to put his money where his mouth is:
In his speech, Macron . . . said that the “challenge is to fight against those who go off the rails in the name of religion . . . while protecting those who believe in Islam and are full citizens of the republic.” If he really means this, perhaps he could provide security and support to those French Muslims courageously speaking out against radical Islam? . . . In the effort to combat the extremists, it is vital to distinguish the Muslims pushing for real change from the Islamists with silver tongues. A great many French Muslims are fighting against the Islamists, and Macron could do far more to support them.
French law [already] allows the government to reject naturalization requests on grounds of “lack of assimilation, other than linguistic.” So in the spirit of this law, Macron should start to repatriate asylum-seekers who engage in violence or the incitement of violence—particularly against women.
In foreign policy, he could tackle the ideological extremism that is disseminated by the governments of Qatar and Turkey—among others—through their support of Islamists. . . . He could take a much stronger stand against the Iranian regime—bilaterally as well as at the EU level—for its hostile activities on European soil, its vicious cruelty towards its own population, and its efforts to export revolutionary Islamism throughout the Middle East. This would also mean further strengthening France’s ties to Israel, the UAE, and Egypt and demanding that Saudi Arabia stop funding Wahhabi extremists abroad.
Read more on Spectator: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-significance-of-macrons-war-on-Islamism