Global Muslim Brotherhood Groups Submit Complaint About France To UN Human Rights Council

An Islam­ic advo­ca­cy group has report­ed that a coali­tion of 36 NGOs is tak­ing action against France at the UN Human Rights Coun­cil (UNHCR) over its alleged sys­temic dis­crim­i­na­tion of Mus­lims. Accord­ing to the CAGE press release:

In a first of its kind, a glob­al coali­tion of civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions are sub­mit­ting a foren­sic com­plaint to the UN Human Rights Coun­cil (UNHRC) against France, request­ing that it open a for­mal infringe­ment pro­ce­dure against the gov­ern­ment for sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly entrench­ing Islam­o­pho­bia and dis­crim­i­na­tion against Muslims.The com­plaint high­lights that the actions of the French gov­ern­ment have tac­it­ly sup­port­ed the pub­li­ca­tion of demean­ing car­toons depict­ing Prophet (peace be upon him), and for the enact­ment of an array of Islam­o­pho­bic state poli­cies and act­ing upon them vio­lent­ly. These actions vio­late the dig­ni­ty and basic rights of Mus­lims. Recent poli­cies have also forced the clo­sure of sev­er­al civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions, mosques and pre­cip­i­tat­ed vio­lent, indis­crim­i­nate house raids.The com­plaint is signed by 36 organ­i­sa­tions from over 13 coun­tries includ­ing, The Islam­ic Coun­cil of Vic­to­ria (Aus­tralia), Euro­pean Mus­lim Ini­tia­tive for Social Cohe­sion (Stras­bourg), the Mus­lim Asso­ci­a­tion of Britain (UK), and Yaqeen insti­tute (USA). It calls upon the UNHRC to ensure that France enact or rescind leg­is­la­tion where nec­es­sary to pro­hib­it fur­ther dis­crim­i­na­tion against Muslims.

Read the rest here.

The action stems from the events of Octo­ber 2020 when Samuel Paty, a French school­teacher, was behead­ed by an immi­grant teenag­er said to be enraged over the car­toons of the Prophet Muham­mad shown in a class on free speech giv­en by the teacher.

In the for­mal com­plaint, the signees crit­i­cize France’s “open sup­port” for the pub­li­ca­tion of the Muhammed car­toons, French Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron’s state­ments against Islamist sep­a­ratism, and the government’s crack­down on Islam­ic orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the Col­lec­tive Against Islam­o­pho­bia in France (CCIF). They fur­ther assert that Macron’s “hos­tile dis­pro­por­tion­ate reper­cus­sions are not based on empir­i­cal evi­dence” as “reli­gion and ide­ol­o­gy are not pri­ma­ry moti­va­tors for vio­lent extrem­ism.” Final­ly, they call upon the UNHCR to “take on the nec­es­sary mea­sures against the gov­ern­men­tal dis­crim­i­na­to­ry anti-Islam­ic actions” of France. The group of signees includes a mix of mosques, Islam­ic orga­ni­za­tions, and three uni­ver­si­ty depart­ments. Sev­er­al signees are asso­ci­at­ed with or have ties to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, includ­ing:

• The Mus­lim Asso­ci­a­tion of Britain, the main orga­ni­za­tion of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in the UK.

• Fins­bury Park Mosque, a major Lon­don mosque con­trolled by the MAB.

• CAGE, a UK Islam­ic advo­ca­cy group tied to the UK Mus­lim Broth­er­hood network.

• Mus­lim Engage­ment and Devel­op­ment (MEND), a UK Islam­ic NGO close to the UK Mus­lim Brotherhood.

• Friends of Al-Aqsa, part of the UK Hamas sup­port network.

• The Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR), part of the US Mus­lim Brotherhood.

• The Euro­pean Mus­lim Ini­tia­tive for Social Cohe­sion (EMISCO), a UK Mus­lim human rights group chaired by Lord Nazir Ahmed, close to the Glob­al Mus­lim Brotherhood.

In Novem­ber 2020, the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) report­ed on the French government’s plans to dis­solve the Col­lec­tive Against Islam­o­pho­bia in France (CCIF) for its alleged involve­ment in a social media cam­paign against a French his­to­ry teacher who was lat­er behead­ed. In Decem­ber, the GIOR report­ed that the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR) offered DC office space to the CCIF, which had left France. The GIOR has also cov­ered oth­er actions by the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood direct­ed against France, including:

• A state­ment by the Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims (CEM) crit­i­ciz­ing French Pres­i­dent Macron for a speech on com­bat­ing Islamist separatism.

• An open let­ter by a group of 28 Euro­pean Islam­ic orga­ni­za­tions to French Pres­i­dent Emman­u­al Macron for his “uni­lat­er­al assault on Mus­lims, Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.”

• A warn­ing by the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR) against Mus­lims trav­el­ing to France, say­ing they may face dan­ger and dis­crim­i­na­tion there.