President Macron promises to reform practice of Islam in France

French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday night that work on the “framework and rules” would start in the coming months to ensure that Islam “will be practiced everywhere in accordance with the laws of the republic.” 

 

 

French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday night that work on the “framework and rules” would start in the coming months to ensure that Islam “will be practiced everywhere in accordance with the laws of the republic.” 

He added: “We will do this with French Muslims and their representatives.”

The “immense majority” of French Muslims supported the country’s principles of individual freedom and secularism based on mutual respect, he said.

Macron acknowledged that “terrorism, the chaos of the world, migration and our failures in integration” played a role in public fears.

“This is why we must restore the republic’s order and respect,” Macron said, referring to the fight against terrorism and a policing plan for troubled suburbs announced earlier this year.

“General order, ordinary sense of civility and independence of minds and individuals regarding religion are not empty words in France, and this requires a new framework and harmony,” he said.

“There is no reason at all for the relation between the Republic and Islam to be difficult,” Macron said, noting that there is “an extremist and hostile interpretation of Islam that aims to doubt our laws as a free state and a free society whose principles do not submit to religious orders.”