By: V4 Agency
After the young lawyer appearing in the television programme received mortal threats, the journalist doing the reporting was also targeted and has been placed under police protection in France. The interior minister says every effort will be made to apprehend the perpetrators. According to right-wing presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, millions are grateful for the courage of the journalist.
A female journalist reporting in a television programme about the Islamisation of France has received death threats. She is not the first to be attacked in connection with the programme.
As reported by V4NA, tensions are high in France after the airing of a report in the TV show Zone Interdite (Prohibited Zone). The programme reported in detail that in the town of Roubaix, less than two hours from Paris, Islam has spread to a point where streets are lined with halal butchers, bookstores selling Islamic volumes and toy shops offering faceless dolls, in conforming to Islamic teachings.
After appearing on the show, 25-year-old lawyer Amine El Bahi’s phone number was published on social media and he received several death threats. Some even threatened to behead him or slit his throat, he told BFMTV.
That was not the end of the story, however. This time Ophelie Meunier, the journalist making the report has also received mortal threats, after which she was placed under police protection.
The young journalist and the lawyer did nothing wrong, Le Figaro writes. The former was merely doing her job, while the latter spoke about the Islamisation of a town. The paper points out that after the incident the link between Islamism and terrorism has become clear, as those who criticise Islamisation become the targets of threats almost automatically, and law enforcement services are unable to cope with the large number of threats.
The author of the article, essayist Celine Pina, believes that what is happening to Ophelie Meunier is no different from what happened to Mila, the teenage girl who criticised Islam. The author points out that sharia rules are being put in place through political violence and by exploiting the weaknesses of power, thus turning any accusation of Islamophobia into a new weapon for censorship.
Celine Pina says that the Islamist threat is real and those who refuse to remain silent will pay dearly, facing threats hanging over their heads like the sword of Damocles. She argues that Islamism is the ideology that combines terrorist and political lines to use them for achieving the same goals: re-Islamising people from Arab-Muslim backgrounds and transforming Europe into a land ruled by Islam. These radical movements are greatly abetted by the blindness of authorities, she adds.
In the author’s view, some politicians should be seen as accomplices. In particular, she highlights statements by Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the left-wing party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) and party spokesman David Guiraud, who say that the report accuses Muslims and foments racism. However, the essayist emphasizes that triggering the narrative of victimisation as soon as Islamist methods are unveiled is a well-known practice aimed at diverting people’s attention from the reality of deadly threats and potential executions, as well as at generating sympathy for “persecuted” Muslims.
Ms Pina stresses that her objective is to see the French government take action against the threats at long last as the political world continues to turn a blind eye to the phenomenon. She points out that as long as the fight against separatism fails to focus on identity-based Islam’s politics of influence, journalists, teachers, police officers and whistle-blowers will remain political targets.
One of the most popular right-wing politicians, Eric Zemmour, also spoke out for the threatened journalist. Millions of French patriots are grateful to Ophelie Meunier for her courage, he wrote on Twitter.
Gerald Darmanin also took to Twitter to respond, writing that he has issued the order that is sent out every time a journalist receives a serious threat. The reporter is under police protection and the perpetrators of these threats will be found, he added.