France v. the Islamic State: mortal enemies

[rug]

France's state policy of 'laïcité' (secularism) and its military interventions in Islamic countries has made it the prime target of IS in the West. The hardline French response to step up bombing campaigns against jihadis in Syria, Iraq, and Mali will likely continue, but conversely feeds IS strategy, which is to foment anti-Muslim sentiment among the non-Muslim French population.

20 JULY 2016, Gateway House
BY Olivier Da Lage
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AT RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONAL

Finally, after two long days, the so-called Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the horrific truck attack in the French Riviera capital, Nice, on Bastille Day (July 14, 2016) which left more than 80 people dead and 200 injured. Whether the murderous truck driver who mowed down the crowd of holiday-makers was a true jihadi or just a disgruntled individual is immaterial: the claim made by the IS left no doubt that it has made France one of its key targets.

France is not the only country to be regarded as kafir (an infidel) by the self-proclaimed caliphate: all of the western world, Shia Muslims, and even most Sunni Muslims, including those in the Arab Gulf states are kuffar (infidels) according to the IS and as such, deserve to be fought by its army of militants. But for the IS, France is a prime target, mainly – but not exclusively – for the following reasons:

The French state policy of laïcité (secularism);

The recent French military interventions abroad, mostly in Islamic countries (Mali, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan) and

The sizeable Muslim community on French territory (between 4 million and 5 million, out of a total population of 66 million).

The French concept of laïcité is usually translated as ‘secularism’ but in fact, it goes well beyond that. India and the U.S., for that matter, profess to have secular constitutions but religion in all its aspects is widely prevalent in the public domain in both nations. By contrast, the French term ‘laïcité’ was coined in the early 20th century to curtail the Catholic Church’s influence on state matters by enforcing a strict separation between the church and the state. By law, the French state is strictly areligious. In actual fact, it has long been regarded as hostile to Catholicism.

With the current dynamics of diminishing religious practice among Christians set against the growing number of Muslims, Islam has become the target of ‘laïc’ public policies that are sometimes aggressively applied. For this reason, many Muslim citizens feel disenfranchised in France and denounce what they perceive as a prevalent ‘Islamophobia’. Jihadi organisations exploit this feeling of alienation and equate laïcité with atheism, making it unacceptable for any follower of the Islamic faith. Al Qaida (formerly) and IS (today) derived and continue to derive the legitimacy of attacking France as an atheist country from several verses of the Quran and various hadith (sayings of Prophet Mohammed that, along with the Quran, constitute the principal guidelines for practising Muslims) on how to deal harshly with non-believers.

http://www.gatewayhouse.in/france-islamic-state-mortal-enemies/