Muslim-baiting plays a venomous part in mainstream French politics. The British media should not be its accomplice
French President Emmanuel Macron is pictured in Creteil, outside Paris, on 29 March 2021 (AFP)
Any political strategist hoping to get a controversial message across to an educated audience would be hard-pressed to look beyond a letter in the Financial Times from the president of France. The FT is widely viewed as a peerless newspaper of record – one read by power brokers everywhere – while the
chef d’etat of the French republic is one of the most powerful chief executives on earth.
Hence, Emmanuel Macron was taken very seriously indeed when he spread fake news about his country’s five million Muslims in the FT last November. In a few toxic paragraphs, he conjured up a picture of lawless council estates where Muslim parents are poisoning the minds of little girls while covering their bodies under burkas.