French presidential poll: Fight for freedom of religion or Le Pen's Islamophobia

Ahead of the second round of the French presidential election, the struggle between sitting French President Emmanuel Macron and his rival Marine Le Pen has become even more aggravated, touching on one of the most sensitive topics - religion.

Report informs that during the decisive televised debate between the presidential candidates yesterday, Le Pen, who has been repeatedly accused of Islamophobia, outdone herself more than once by announcing her desire to "ban hijab wearing in public".

“I am in favor of banning the hijab in the public. I am extremely clear about it: I think that the hijab is the uniform imposed by the Islamists. Many of the women, who wear it, have no choice, even if they dare not say so, because those who don’t wear it reveal how they are insulted, ostracized and accused of being impure. This situation is intolerable in our country. We need to liberate these women from Islamists and that is why, I believe that we must ban the hijab in public,” Le Pen told the TV debate.

This statement is particularly surprising given that, according to a 2020 BBC article, France has the highest Muslim population of any European nation, with over 5.7 million Muslims, making about 8.8% of the country's population.

However, it is worth noting that, according to the results of the debate, not all voters rebelled against such a statement and maintained a “pro-Le Pen” stance: “Even now I cannot say if I am going to vote for Macron or for Le Pen, but I think that this debate was really won by Marine Le Pen,” said a voter. At the same time, another voter said: “I hate this man and I absolutely vote against him.”

“At the end of the day she is less credible than he is and because of the conditions of geopolitics we must consider Europe and I shall vote for Macron”, “we forget how lucky we are to have such a beautiful country. If one of the extreme party wins, it will create even more hate, hate creates more hate.”

Macron himself condemned Le Pen very harshly, saying that by such actions she goes against the French constitution and provokes a civil war.

“This issue is about religion. The hijab or a scarf is a religious sign. I am in favor of the 1905 law on secularism in our republic. Secularism is not about fighting the religion. I will not ban any religious sign in public, whether the scarf or the kippah. If you go down that road you will have to ban all religious signs in public,” he said, to which she interrupted him, saying that “you haven’t read my proposal,” and received a very stern answer from Macron: “No, but I read the French constitution”.

However, this is not Le Pen's first Islamophobic speech. In 2015, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front party, was already sued for comparing the sight of Muslim prayers in the street to the Nazi occupation of Paris. Then the court acquitted her.

The question arises of how “tolerant and secular” it is for a European, democratic, and self-respecting country to forbid any stratum of the population from having their own faith and expressing it with appropriate attributes.

Of course, there is a layer of radical Islamists, forcing women to cover their heads and behave in certain ways against their will. But many women themselves choose this path. So, wouldn't it be better to introduce a law against the forced wearing of the hijab to protect women from it?