France: Support for the Collective Against Islamophobia in France in the face of the attacks of Macron and Darmanin!

Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste
November 20, 2020

Last night, we learned that the Ministry of the Interior had just notified, by mail, the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (Collectif contre l’islamophobie en France - CCIF) of its intention to initiate a plan to dissolve. Gerald Darmanin[1] thus carried out his threatened action and claimed to be acting "in accordance with the instructions of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister".

By attacking this organization whose role is to combat Islamophobic violence and discrimination, especially including through the support of victims and the publication of an annual report on Islamophobia in France, the government is taking a further step in its authoritarian state policy.

While the content of the pre-bill "separatism" (renamed "strengthening republican principles") has just been made public, confirming that the government continues its headlong authoritarian and Islamophobic rush, the desire to silence the CCIF and, through it, those who stand up against stigmatisation and discrimination against Muslims, is revolting.

Thus, the Minister of the Interior who wants to ban the denunciation of police violence also wants to prohibit the denunciation of Islamophobia. Everyone should understand that these are two sides of the same policy, whose aim is to silence any criticism of their "republican order", at a time when the government's bankrupt failure to manage the health crisis makes it fear social explosions.

The NPA condemns this attack on the CCIF and assures its facilitators and volunteers of all its support in their indispensable action against Islamophobia. It is the whole of the social movement and the labour movement that should now stand against this new authoritarian measure: the future of the anti-racist struggle and, more generally, all the struggles of our social camp are at stake.

[1] Minister of the Interior in the government of Prime Minister Jean Castex