صراط عشق صراط عشق
A French lawyer has criticised the European Union over an advertisement for its Conference on the Future of Europe event featuring a Hijab-wearing Muslim woman. Thibault de Montbrial, an adviser to France’s centre-right presidential hopeful Valerie Pecresse, said the use of such an image to illustrate the continent’s future left him “speechless”.
“The Muslim Brotherhood dared not dream of it, the useful idiots did. For my part, I will fight with all my might to avoid such a future for Europe,” de Montbrial tweeted on Wednesday (09 Feb 2022), citing the political group founded in Egypt nearly a century ago.
Le choix d’une femme voilée pour illustrer une conférence «sur l’avenir de l’Europe» laisse sans voix.
Les Frères Musulmans n’osaient pas en rêver, les idiots utiles l’ont fait.
Je combattrai pour ma part de toutes mes forces pour éviter un tel avenir à l’#Europe.#islamisme pic.twitter.com/p9YIw1mQpY
— Thibault deMontbrial (@MontbrialAvocat) February 9, 2022
Translation: “The choice of a veiled woman to illustrate a conference ‘on the future of Europe’ leaves you speechless. The Muslim Brotherhood dared not dream of it, the useful idiots did. For my part, I will fight with all my might to avoid such a future for #Europe. #Islamism”
The poster for the ongoing event, which gives EU citizens the opportunity to have their say on possible reforms of the bloc’s policies and institutions, includes a call to “make your voice heard” and states “the future is in your hands”. Picking up on de Montbrial’s outburst, Mehreen Khan, EU correspondent for the Financial Times newspaper, said the bloc was “once again being accused of being a clandestine Islamist plot puppeteered by the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ because there is a Muslim woman on a poster”.
The social media row puts France’s treatment of its minority Muslim population – the largest in Europe – back in the spotlight ahead of the country’s April presidential election. Last month, the French Senate voted in favour of banning Hijabs in sports competitions.
That move came a year after legislators in the French Parliament’s lower house approved the so-called “separatism” bill to strengthen oversight of mosques, schools and sports clubs in a bid to safeguard France from “radical Islamists” and promote “respect for French values” – one of President Emmanuel Macron’s landmark projects.
