Macron Meets Muslim Leaders Amid Debate on Religious Symbols in Schools

This meeting was more than necessary, especially after the tribune of 100 local elected officials calling on Emmanuel Macron to show that he is the guarantor of the freedom of every French person, whether Muslim or not.

In an interview given to RTL on Monday, October 28, the Head of State affirms that he does not want to give in to "haste" on this issue of secularism. "To see how our fellow citizens whose religion is Islam can live their religion peacefully while absolutely respecting all the laws of the Republic."

For the General Delegate of the CFCM, Abdallah Zekri, this meeting is a boon and will lift a corner of the veil on certain difficulties that Muslims in France have been going through, since the debate on radicalization and the veil has taken on a worrying turn.

During this meeting, the CFCM must inform the President of the concern of Muslims, and particularly of Muslim women, with regard to the veil "which has become a hysterical affair led by certain right-wing and left-wing politicians, moreover."

He reveals strong expectations from this meeting: "This debate on the veil has been going on since 1989, we have to stop it, the President has to take a firm stand on this."

On RTL, Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly said that he wants to fight against "communitarianism" and against a specific situation: "The fact that in certain neighborhoods of the Republic, in certain places of our Republic, there is a separatism that has settled in, that is to say the will not to live together anymore, not to be in the Republic anymore, and in the name of a religion, Islam, by perverting it."

The President of the Republic adds that he will make announcements "in the weeks to come", mentioning a battery of measures in "education, health, work, the various public services".