The president had already called for the unity of the country. This Monday, Emmanuel Macron called on the representatives of religions, received at the Elysée, to make an “educational effort” among young people. This statement comes the day after protests against anti-Semitism. The Head of State “encouraged us to increase actions towards young people”, indicated at the end of the meeting the president of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) Eric de Moulins-Beaufort.
It is a question of “explaining this universalist spirit to all young people, in order to avoid victimized competition and ultimately build the values of the Republic,” added the president of the Protestant Federation of France, Christian Krieger. “The president’s objective, which we will obviously help to relay, is that this word can be spread” while “a number of young people who no longer necessarily read the press, no longer watch television, are sometimes locked up in their own language (…) without going towards the other”, affirmed the president of the Central Jewish Consistory, Elie Korchia.
Make it “a fight against racism”
Launching a call to “listen”, the Chief Rabbi of France Haïm Korsia warned: “No one can lock themselves into their one and their simple suffering. At that point, we segment a society.” Without returning to the controversy surrounding the absence of the Head of State from the march against anti-Semitism, he was pleased to see that “everyone was united in the reaffirmation of the values of the Republic”.
Muslim leaders were not represented at this march and the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, explained: “I have no lessons to learn in the fight against anti-Semites. The Paris Mosque has always been extremely active in the fight against anti-Semitism.” But “it would have been necessary [en] “fighting racism was important,” he added. “I don’t want to compete with victims” because “there is a real rise in anti-Semitism” but “there has been an outburst of statements made against Muslims,” he added.
“Unbridled anti-Semitism”
Also invited to this meeting, in the presence of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, the president of the Union of Mocks of France Mohammed Moussaoui, as well as Sadek Beloucif for the Forum of Islam of France (Forif), Dimitrios Ploumis for Orthodox worship and Antony Boussemart for Buddhists. Around 105,000 people in Paris and a total of 182,000 across France demonstrated on Sunday in the face of the explosion in the number of acts hostile to Jews since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
In a letter published Saturday by the daily The Parisian, Emmanuel Macron deplored “the unbearable resurgence of unbridled anti-Semitism” and judged that “a France where our Jewish fellow citizens are afraid is not France”. “France must remain united behind its values, its universalism, united for itself, to carry out its project and work for peace and security for all in the Middle East,” he added.