Why Do Muslims Flee From France to Other Countries?

With the approach of the French presidential elections in April 2022, the rise of right-wing racism in the speeches of the majority of candidates, and accusations of Muslims of seeking to occupy the country through the idea of ​​the "Great Replacement,” the Muslims of France are forced to emigrate to other countries.

French newspapers confirmed the existence of immigration of Muslims because of racism, and that some of them are qualified and forcibly choose to move to Turkey, where they will feel safe religiously and economically, as well.

This reverse migration of Muslims, who represent 10 percent of the population of France, the so-called “the country of liberties,” was attributed by press reports to "Islamophobia and crimes of racism and hate."

 

Quiet Escape

On February 13, 2022, New York Times highlighted the "quiet escape of Muslims from France,” in search of a safer life in other countries, as Islamophobia has dramatically increased.

Professor at the French University of Lille, Olivier Esteves, conducted a survey on 900 French Muslims who immigrated, and met with 130 others, who said that they "flee to Canada and Britain because their country associates them with crime and social diseases," and that "France is shooting itself with racism."

French politicians recently began linking Muslims to "crime" and other social problems, with racist expressions describing them as "invaders," and demanding that their "places be outside France" or in "ghosts," and some of them demanded that they should be deprived of work.

The Guardian confirmed that Islamophobia "will not only put France in danger, but the whole of the European Union, because whoever wins from these right-wingers will lead Europe under the French presidency of the Union."

This racism and hostility reached the demand by members of the French Senate (controlled by the right) on February 11, 2022, to ban the headscarf in sports competitions.

 

Witch Hunt

Racism against Muslims, and the emigration of some of them prompted the European Network against Racism in Europe (ENAR) to sound the alarm about the deterioration of the human rights situation of French Muslims.

The head of the European Network against Racism, Karen Taylor, described what France is doing to Muslims as a "witch hunt,” similar to what the Church was doing in the Middle Ages from the farce of persecuting people who claim to be practicing witchcraft.

It said they were "using conspiracy theories to make Muslims scapegoats for the political process, rather than knowing the problems of Islamophobia.”

The network published a statement on February 14, 2022, denouncing the "racial discrimination" practiced by the French government against the Muslim community in France, and warning against the spread of this institutional racism in the rest of Europe with the French presidency of the Union.

 

'The Great Replacement'

The rhetoric of racist attacks of the presidential candidates against Muslims, and their invocation of a racist theory accusing the immigrant Muslims that they would occupy France instead of the white Christians, was one of the reasons for their emigration.

The extremist candidate, Eric Zemmour, has promoted the "Great Replacement" theory claiming that parts of France are being "colonized" by Muslim immigrants, and vowed to expel them from the country.

Zemmour supported the anti-Muslim ideas of the former far-right US President Donald Trump, and called him by phone on February 15, 2022, to advise him, calling on him to stick to his reactionary ideas against Muslims.

Zemmour targeted mosques and the call to prayer in his recent statements on a French channel, saying: "I do not want to hear the voice of the muezzin in France, and I will not hear it if I become president of the republic. We welcome churches instead of mosques for cultural reasons.”

Conservative candidate, Valérie Pécresse, also used far-right rhetoric and referred to the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory at her first major campaign rally on February 13, 2022.

Pécresse deliberately said that "Marianne is not a veiled woman," in order to claim that "France is not for Muslims."

"Marianne" is a figure of a woman who is considered a symbol of the French Revolution and who raises her statues in the country or on her currency, appearing topless, which contradicts with the Islamic veil, and is considered as symbol of anti-hijab and Islam in general.

Political experts considered Pécresse's use of this racist slogan as "a France's shift to the right, and the overwhelming influence of right-wing ideas in this campaign," according to the New York Times.

An expert on the far-right at the Institute of Politics in Lyon, Philippe Corcoff, considered Pécresse’s use of Marianne's expression "a clear racist evidence against Muslims, and an indication that the French will be discriminated against according to racial criteria."

The right-wing presidential candidate, Eric Ciotti, also attacked Muslims and claimed that "Arab-Islamic immigration is a threat to Christian-Jewish civilization" in France, describing the veil as a "symbol" and "flag" of political Islam.

During a program on BFM TV on February 14, 2022, Ciotti said he wanted to ban headscarves for female students and women who benefit from government services.

Macron will almost certainly face the "Great Replacement" right-wing candidates Pécresse and Zemmour in the April 2022 elections, all three running racist platforms against France's Muslims.

The theory of the "Great Replacement" put forward by the far-right French writer, Renaud Camus, in his book "The Great Replacement,” which was about the cultural, religious and social invasion of France by immigrants from Africa.The Great Replacement, which was about the cultural, religious and social invasion of France by immigrants from Africa.

This theory argues that "Christian civilization is being deliberately replaced by the Muslim immigration from Africa," according to Daily Mail.

Researchers believe that the "Great Replacement" is an old theory adopted by the Nazi movement, which was promoting the threat of the imminent extinction of the white European peoples and the danger of the Jews to the Aryan race.

What the French extreme right did was replacing the Jews with the Muslims in the replacement theory, according to Monte Carlo radio.

The origins of this idea go back to the medieval Christian period, which considered Muslims and Jews a threat, and then promoted the theory of France “drowning” in a flood of supposed “foreign gas,” according to Le Monde.