In the wake of two brutal attacks in France, French President Emmanuel Macron has launched a nationwide campaign vilifying Muslims. Despite a surge in Covid-19, thousands took to the streets to speak out in Paris last week. According to Agence 24, “police fired water cannons and tear gas near the National Assembly, the parliament, when a number of young protesters started damaging property toward the end of a rally that had been peaceful.” This following statement was published by the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) in solidarity with the Collective Against Islamophobia in France.

*****

Yesterday evening we learned that the Interior Ministry sent a letter notifying the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) of its intention to initiate legal proceedings to dissolve it. Minister of Interior Gérald Darmanin is thus carrying out his threats to act “in accordance with the instructions of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister.”

By attacking an organization in this way that fights Islamophobic violence and discrimination, particularly through its support for victims and the publication of an annual report cataloguing Islamophobia in France, the authorities are taking a further step in their authoritarian policy.

The content of the legislative bill on “separatism” (now renamed “reinforcing the republican principles”) has just been made public, confirming that the government is intensifying its authoritarian and Islamophobic headlong rush. The government’s desire to silence the CCIF and, through it, those who stand up against stigmatization and discrimination against Muslims, is revolting.

[Read next, NPA Statement: After the horror in Nice, reject the logic of war.]

Thus, the Minister of the Interior seeks to ban the denunciation of police violence and simultaneously wants to ban the denunciation of Islamophobia. Everyone must understand that these are two sides of the same policy, the objective of which is to silence any criticism of their “republican order” at a time when the government’s own bankruptcy in the management of the health crisis makes it fear social explosions.

The NPA condemns this attack on the CCIF and assures its leaders and volunteers of our complete support in their indispensable work against Islamophobia. All social movements and the workers’ movement that should stand up against this new authoritarian measure: the future of the anti-racist fight is at stake as well as social struggles of all kinds.

[For international news and analysis from working-class, oppressed peoples, and socialist points of view, read New Borders News.]