PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron already has signed into law anti-terror legislation that gives security services the authority to shut down places of worship if they are fostering extremism.
And French police can search terrorist suspects’ homes and demand identity documents of suspects at borders. The moves were prompted by the 2015 terrorist attacks by Muslims that killed 130 in Paris. Now Macron wants to move much further down a road that wouldn’t be permitted in the United States because of civil-rights protections in the Constitution. The French president wants to tax Muslim food, reform an influential Muslim council and restrict what other countries can do to finance mosques or train imams in France. Kern noted Macron’s plan is vague and short on details “but appears to involve three broad pillars: determining who will represent Muslims in France; delineating how Islam in France will be financed; and defining how imams in France will be trained.”
He said the plan includes reformation of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, which acts as a go-between for Muslims and the state.
