Tribune. I address all citizens who believe that hope can make us better. I believe in our common destiny. Our strength lies in our common values. Anything that goes once morest our coexistence constitutes a danger for our future and that of the generations that will follow us. Our children will reproach us for our selfishness if we continue to ignore all the worrying signs that come to us from the political scene. They will ask us for explanations regarding our passivity and we will only have sales pitches to serve them. Their judgment of us will be ruthless. They will say that we let it happen.
I’m worried.
Extreme discourse is increasingly present in public debate. Since my arrival at the Great Mosque of Paris, I have publicly recalled that the amalgamation between Islam and Islamism first punishes Muslims practicing a religion of peace and brotherhood. I took part in the public debate and I did not hesitate to take up my pen to publish The Manifesto Against Islamist Terrorism in September (ed. Erick Bonnier, 2021). I have bluntly accused the manipulators of Islamism of dragging Islam into the shadows and pushing some Muslims to take refuge there. But they are not the only extremists to disown.
Today, I pray that our fellow citizens of the Muslim faith will continue to live like the children of a protective Republic, no offense to certain speakers who have no other competence than polemical and hateful phraseology. These want to settle in our minds in the name of our security or a fantasized identity.
Forbearance risk
No, is not a politician who claims it. At best, we are dealing with ill-intentioned intruders breaking into our lives. At worst, they are mutants carrying a devastating epidemic that nothing will stop, not even the spectacle of chaos and desolation. In moments of resignation, doubt and fear, humans can fall into error, even horror. It has been like this since the dawn of time. What response do we have to this nuisance determined to fracture us? A renunciation of politics in its noblest form and a risk of abstention which will strengthen the ranks of mutants watching for the slightest of our cracks.
So I’m doubly worried.
I will not be silent. In such circumstances, silence is a form of complicity. The silence of the honest citizen also becomes an asset in the service of political mutants. How can one claim the supreme magistracy and fracture one’s own population? How can you want to lead a country and mislead public opinion by professing untruths regarding the loyalty of Muslims? What purpose ? The personality that embodies the presidency must be unifying, loving and reassuring. It should teach us to trust each other, not to distrust each other.
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