‘We can’t have Turkish laws on French ground’: Macron vows to fight foreign imams preaching ‘Islamist separatism’
Paris will clamp down on imams from Muslim countries that arrive in France to push worshipers into violating the law, the country’s President Emmanuel Macron said, warning Turkey it can’t “feed separatism” on French soil.
Macron promised to “gradually” end the program allowing Muslim countries to send imams and teachers to France in order to teach languages and culture unsupervised by the state. Speaking at the town of Mulhouse near the German border, he said that the influence of foreign imams leads some to “separate themselves from the Republic and therefore not respect its laws.”
The French leader singled out Turkey because, unlike Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, Ankara has not yet reached an agreement on the program with Paris. “Turkey today can make the choice to follow that path with us or not, but I won’t let any foreign country feed a cultural, religious or identity-related separatism on our Republic’s ground,” he said.
We cannot have Turkey’s laws on French ground. No way.
There are currently 151 Turkish imams in France, according to the Interior Ministry.
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Macron stated that he was “not trying to offend anyone, but will not be complacent” either. In order to fight “Islamist separatism,” he asked the French Muslim Council (CFCM) to improve the training of imams so they could “master” French laws.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that the practice of sending foreign imams to France will end in 2024.
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