French Muslim Council Chief Condemns Threats Over Islam Criticism

In an op-ed published on the Marianne website, Mohammed Moussaoui writes that "some Muslims go astray in thinking they are defending the dignity of their religion through threat, violence or insult".

However, "they only reinforce and develop the caricature of all those who want to reduce Islam to intolerance and violence. These excesses and intimidations are unjustifiable, both with regard to the precepts of the Muslim religion and with regard to the republican law in which our religion is exercised".

The president of the CFCM refers to the insults and death threats that followed the extremely virulent remarks made by a young high school student against Islam. "We must accept all debates and refuse all violence," he affirms. However, "when the freedom to criticize becomes the desire to offend and designate our community of believers to the vindictiveness, we must use our right to defend our beliefs, and resort to the procedures conferred by our rule of law. Insult and abuse will never be respectable or acceptable expressions".

Mohammed Moussaoui proposes that the justice system be seized each time the boundary between free expression and the deliberate will to offend is crossed. "The Islam of France simply asks for respect for its beliefs and its believers," he proclaims, while warning those who make Islam the scapegoat for all the ills of the country, and who dangerously widen the gap between citizens.