French parliament passes bill against radical Islam

New Delhi, Feb 18: France’s lower house of parliament cleared the bill against radicalism much to be worry of the Muslims living there. Islamic fundamentalism has raised its ugly and violent head recently in France forcing the parliament to take such a strong legislation.

Political observers feel that the bill was a political maneuver by French President Emmanuel Macron to win the support from conservative and extreme right voters ahead of the presidential elections due next year.

The bill will strengthen government inspection of mosques and madarsas and can crack down on polygamy and forced marriages, among other measures aimed at rooting out Islamic radicalism.

According to reports the bill is a part of broader French initiative to fight extremism in the recent years. Recently, a teacher was beheaded in October last year besides attacks by the Islamic extremists.

President Macron said that such efforts were also required to protect the French values loke gender equality and secularism from getting encroached on by fundamentalism in some communities.

However, many French Muslims feel that the draft law curtails religious freedom and unfairly targets them. They felt that France has enough laws to deal with extremist violence. The critics of the bill described it as political maneuver by the French President to garner support of the conservative and right wing voters in the next year’s presidential elections.

The bill is expected to be cleared in the National Assembly dominated by Marcon’s centrist party and the Senate led by the conservatives.