Emmanuel Macron has described Islam as 'a religion that is in crisis all over the world' as he unveiled a proposal to battle Islamic radicalism which had created a 'parallel society' living outside of French values.
In a keynote speech lasting more than an hour, France's head of state said earlier today that Islam was in crisis due to 'an extreme hardening' of positions in recent years.
He said the government would this year present a draft law aimed at strengthening secularism in France against what Macron described as 'Islamist separatism' in the country.
Macron has coined the term 'separatism' to describe the underworld that thrives in some neighborhoods around France where Muslims with a radical vision of their religion take control of the local population to inculcate their beliefs.
But members of France's six-million-strong Muslim community — the largest in Western Europe — immediately accused him of stirring up Islamophobic and racist feeling so as to appeal to far-Right voters.
Emmanuel Macron (pictured earlier today) has described Islam as 'a religion that is in crisis all over the world' as he unveiled a proposal to battle Islamic radicalism which had created a 'parallel society' living outside of French values
In a speech broadcast live from Les Mureaux, north of Paris, Mr Macron said 'we must tackle Islamist separatism' while not 'stigmatising all Muslims'.
A new law will allow the dissolution of religious groups that 'attack the dignity of people, using psychological or physical pressure, and break the values of France'.
There will also be an end to the system of 'seconded Imams' which allows extremist clerics and other preachers to be trained abroad before moving to France.
'We ourselves are going to train our Imams and Chanters in France, and therefore we must detach this link which is what is called consular Islam,' said Mr Macron.
He said all French Imams would have to be certified from now on and could be shut down at any time.
The equivalent of more than £9.7million will be spent of work France's Islam Foundation – a moderate organisation which promotes traditional Muslim study in culture, history and science.
Mr Macron said this would help to ensure the dominance of a religion 'respects the values of the Republic'.
Some 1,700 private Muslim school and colleges currently teach around 85,000 children in France.
Today's speech comes as a trial is underway in Paris over the deadly January 2015 attacks on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo (above) and a kosher supermarket by French-born Islamic extremist
Mr Macron said all 'will now be the subject of even stronger supervision,' and that action would be taken against any sign of extremism.
But Yassar Louati, a prominent civil liberties activist based in Paris, said: 'The repression of Muslims has been a threat, now it is a promise.'
Mr Louati said Mr Macron's new measures 'emboldened the far-Right and anti-Muslim leftists'.
Today's speech comes as a trial is underway in Paris over the deadly January 2015 attacks on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket by French-born Islamic extremists.
Last week, a man from Pakistan stabbed two people near Charlie Hebdo's former offices in anger over its publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
The law is expected to go before parliament for debate in the first part of next year.
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