French Interior Minister Boycotts Ramadan Iftar, Sparking Muslim Backlash

French Muslims say they are exasperated by Bruno Retailleau’s hostility towards them. Invoking the principle of secularism, the French Interior Minister has decided not to attend any iftar of the Great Mosque of Paris. A fallacious pretext, say observers who specify that the breaking of the Ramadan fast is not a religious service and that several officials and political personalities participate each year in these iftars.

"President Emmanuel Macron has attended iftars, like previous presidents. And the same goes for many ministers and elected officials of the Republic, each year, who participate in these moments of sharing, as a gesture of respect and esteem for our Muslim citizens," declared Chems-Eddine Hafiz, the rector of the Great Mosque of Paris, in an interview with the site TSA Algérie, recalling that the Minister of the Interior, in charge of cults, is "the first interlocutor" of the leaders of the Muslim faith. "We must maintain relations with him