France's Muslim Problem and the UAE

Just in case you have nothing else to think about today, here is some news from the Middle East. As you are well aware Islamist terrorism is returning to France. Terrorists have killed people outside of the Charley Hebdo offices. One murdered a schoolteacher for showing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. One murdered people in a church in Nice and another stabbed a Greek Orthodox priest in Lyon.

The French president has not called for tolerance. He has not followed the pathetic lead of our former president Obama and called for a war against Islamophobia. He has chosen to attack the issue head on by declaring that Muslims need to integrate into French society and to accept French culture.

Nearly 9% of the French population is Muslim. Most live in No-Go zones around major cities, like Paris. Given the numbers, the problem is enormous.

Fanning the flames of Muslim discontent are world leaders, like Turkish president Erdogan and former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohammed. The latter called for the mass murder of French citizens. His tweet was so appalling that even Twitter felt obliged to take it down.

And yet, the Muslim anti-French sentiment is not universal. The Financial Times reported that the United Arab Emirates has supported the president of France.

A nation that recently made peace with Israel and that has been opening commercial and scientific cooperation with the Jewish state has taken a leading role in the ongoing Reformation within Islam. And we note that the Emirate minister reserved his harsh condemnation for Turkish president Erdogan.

We are happy to pass on the story, written by Simon Kerr in Dubai:

The United Arab Emirates has come out in support of Emmanuel Macron in the face of growing anger in the Middle East over France’s approach to Islam, backing the French president’s call for greater integration of Muslims.

Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, blamed Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan for fanning the flames of religious discord amid terrorist attacks on French soil last month....

Mr Erdogan criticised Mr Macron for his defence of secular free speech and called for a boycott of French products in retaliation for attempts by Paris to grapple with what Mr Macron sees as “Islamist separatism” in some Muslim communities.

“With his attacks on France, Erdogan manipulates a religious issue for political purposes,” said Mr Gargash in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt. “You should listen to what Macron really said in his speech: he doesn’t want the ghettoisation of Muslims in the west, and he is absolutely right.”

The UAE and France have become increasingly aligned in recent years, sharing a common mistrust of the growing force of political Islam across the wider Middle East and its potential to radicalise their domestic populations....

Mr Gargash accused Mr Erdogan of promoting the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and praised Mr Macron as one of the few European politicians willing to check Turkey’s regional expansionism.

“Europe needs a united stance towards Turkey. Wherever Erdogan sees gaps or weaknesses, he uses them to gain power,” Mr Gargash said. “It is only when he is shown a red line that he is willing to negotiate.”