Boris Johnson must pipe up and stand with Macron in his brave battle against Islamist extremism

Emmanuel Macron must have known what he was taking on when he announced last month that French Muslims would in future be raised in the culture of laïcité that draws a clear distinction between Church and State.

In the Iranian press, he was depicted as Satan – whether Great or Little was not made clear. Governments across the Arab world and beyond came together to denounce him as Islamophobic. Crowds of demonstrators took to the streets in Jordan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. In Ankara, the Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on Muslims everywhere to boycott French goods.

What Macron probably didn’t expect was an article in the online edition of the Financial Times, headlined “Macron’s war on ‘Islamic separatism’ only divides France further,” in which, according to the French President, he was accused of  “stigmatising French Muslims for electoral purposes and of fostering a climate of fear and suspicion towards them”.

The article, which was hastily taken down once it became clear that it contained several serious mistakes, claimed that the President had referred in a speech to “Islamic” separatism – suggesting the growth of a state within a state – when in fact he had referred to “Islamist” separatism, by way of which, he said, extremists sought to drive a wedge between Muslims and their non-Muslim fellow citizens.

We can probably draw a discreet veil over the FT’s uncharacteristically error-strewn contribution to the debate, written by Mehreen Khan, the paper’s Brussels Correspondent. These things happen. What is most interesting is the letter, 834 words-long, fired off by Macron in response, that appeared in the following day’s paper.

“For over five years now,” he wrote, “since the attacks on Charlie Hebdo [the satirical weekly that ran cartoons of Muhammad], France has faced a wave of attacks perpetrated by terrorists in the name of an Islam that they have distorted. Some 263 people – police officers, soldiers, teachers, journalists, cartoonists, ordinary citizens – have been assassinated in our homeland. Most recently, an attack that fortunately did not result in any casualties once again targeted the premises of Charlie Hebdo; a history and geography teacher, Samuel Paty, was decapitated; in Nice, two women and a man were assassinated in a church.

“Faced with this ill that is eating into our country, France has rallied with resilience, with determination.”

The President went on to stress the extent of the efforts made by France to combat Islamist terrorism at home and abroad, the latter most obviously in the Sahel region of West Africa, where French soldiers and police have been engaged in the fight against extremist groups for many years.

“But since 2015 it has become clear – and I said this even before I became president– that there are breeding grounds for terrorists in France. In certain districts and on the internet, groups linked to radical Islam are teaching hatred of the Republic to our children, calling on them to disregard its laws. That is what I called ‘separatism’ in one of my speeches.

“If you do not believe me, read the social media postings of hatred shared in the name of a distorted Islam that resulted in Paty’s death. Visit the districts where small girls aged three or four are wearing a full veil, separated from boys, and, from a very young age, separated from the rest of society, raised in hatred of France’s values.

“Speak to government prefects who are confronted on the ground with hundreds of radicalised individuals, who we fear may, at any moment, take a knife and kill people. This is what France is fighting against – patterns of hatred and death that threaten its children – never against Islam. We oppose deception, fanaticism, violent extremism. Not a religion.

“We say: ‘Not here in our country!’ And we have every right to say this, as a sovereign nation and a free people.”

It is hard to imagine a mainstream political party in Europe that wouldn’t echo Macron’s words, and a number of leaders have indeed spoken out in his support, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, the Dutch and Italian prime ministers Mark Rutte and Giuseppe Conte, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz– who this week is dealing with a series of murderous attacks in Vienna – and the President of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen.

Which makes it all the more peculiar that neither Boris Johnson nor the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab have chosen to speak at length about the dilemma in which Macron now finds himself.

The Prime Minister barely reacted to the beheading of Samuel Paty outside the history teacher’s school on 16 October. There was nothing either from the Labour leader, Keir Starmer. Raab confined himself to a statement in which he noted that the UK stood in solidarity with France and that terrorism could never be tolerated.

Two weeks later, the murder by a Tunisian Islamist of three worshippers in a church in Nice elicited the same pro-forma response. “Our thoughts are with the victims and their families,” the foreign secretary said, “and we offer every support to the French people in pursuing those responsible for this appalling attack.”

Very little thought, one can’t help feeling, and precious little support. It is difficult not to believe that the Government, while genuinely horrified by what was taking place, did not wish to associate itself too closely with a leader – particularly a French leader – who looked to have made himself the enemy of the Muslim world.

After this week’s attack in Vienna, in which four people died and another 23 were wounded, Johnson was more forthright. “I am deeply shocked by the terrible attacks in Vienna,” he tweeted. “The UK’s thoughts are with the people of Austria – we stand united with you against terror.”

So how does this unity express itself? No doubt, Britain’s police and intelligence services stand ready to help, but what of our political class? Are we ready to declare that Macron got it right when he said there was no place for Islam – or any other faith – in either the classroom or the workplace? Are we willing to stand up and say that (outside of bishops banging on about the poor) religion and politics shall not mix and that France is justified in requiring its Muslim citizens from now on to confine expression of their faith to their homes and mosques?

The good news is that Macron is not alone in his own country.  A group of ten leading Muslim intellectuals, including the Rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris and the grand Imam of Bordeaux, this week published an open letter in which they pledged their support to the President and laïcité.

The accusation that France was seeking to curtail Muslims’ freedom of conscience was, they wrote, false, as was the suggestion that Macron wished to supplant the law of God, as expressed in the Quran, with human law. Instead, they stood behind the Declaration of the Rights of Man, proclaimed in 1789, which guarantees freedom of religion within an established framework of law and order applied equally to all.

“As observers of French society, we recognise the fact that questions are sometimes raised that are ahead of their time, with universal considerations in mind. Some may consider the thinking behind such questions to be arrogant. We do not share this criticism. Allowing each person to take charge of their destiny, while at the same time integrating themselves in the Republic’s melting pot, represents in our view all the beauty – and the difficulty – of the republican paradigm, and in no way conflicts with the private beliefs of each person.”

Well said. Montesquieu, Voltaire and De Gaulle would each have nodded their approval. Macron has been brave. In demanding of Muslims that, without compromising their beliefs, they regard themselves bound by French law and traditions, he has taken a bold step. Who will join him?