On Wednesday, the newly appointed French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, told the National Assembly that he vowed to be “intransigent” in protecting France’s secularism, promising to battle against “radical Islamism in all its forms” as “an absolute priority”.
While introducing a new government policy in Paris, Jean Castex, said a new law to fight “separatism” would be launched after the summer break.
According to Castex, the new government policy would aim to “avoid certain groups becoming closed in around ethnic or religious identities.”
Castex stated that police would be given the resources they needed to deal with violence during protests and petty crime and that local judges would be arranged to guarantee”day-to-day anti-social behavior” was punished rapidly.
Recently, Emmanuel Macron, French President also spoke against anti-racist movements being lead by “separatists”, after protests against alleged police violence and racism erupted in Paris.
Head of France’s Justice and Liberties For All Committee, Yasser Louati, told Al Jazeera, “The recent use of the term ‘separatism’ by Emmanuel Macron marks a new escalation in state-sponsored Islamophobia in that it perpetuates the fantasy of an enemy within, the same way France did with Jews in the past.”
After the French government declared a state of emergency in November 2015, Human rights groups have called France out for discriminatory raids and house arrests against Muslims.
“The state of emergency that targeted over 5,000 Muslim homes, businesses and places of worship has become permanent, and I fear that the end of the summer will be violent when the government comes back to the office,” Yasser Louati further said.
The French National Assembly approved Prime Minister Jean Castex’s speech by a majority of 345 votes to 177 along with 43 abstentions.