France remains squeezed by shock, hatred and anguish following the murder of French history teacher Samuel Paty by a Chechen refugee. After the teacher's killing, anti-Muslim sentiment has intensified in France. French president Macron has awarded the killed teacher with the highest honour of the state and declared war on "Islamic separatism". Macron called the insult to Islam by Charlie Hebdo magazine as "free speech" at a time when insulting any religion or belief is prohibited in international law and the interpretation of freedom of speech. 

Part of the national identity in France is secularism or "laicite". The French government has said it will not allow freedom of speech to be curtailed based on the feelings of a particular community. But the country considers it a crime to object to or deny the so-called Holocaust. Due to a punishable commitment to Jewish mass killing in World War II, it is a punishable offense. Also criticism of LGBTQ is a punishable crime in that country, but religious insult is freedom of speech!

If secularism had been truly neutral, a writer would not have lost his job for writing a delightful essay on the marriage of a wealthy Jewish girl to the son of former President Sarkozy. The minority problem of French secularism is historical. From the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, France saw its secularism in contrast to the Jewish minority.  French Jews once became extinct due to discrimination and deprivation. Later the Muslims from the colony became a new minority.

France is the only imperialist state in the world that still continues to exploit its colonies. The country has exhausted natural resource-rich Africa. The French carried out the most barbaric massacre in Algeria's history. The army did not even bother to mutilate the bodies of many after the killing. Despite the collapse of the empire, the country still continues to exploit and oppress. Rather, France has been surviving by exploiting its former colony of Africa.

Now Muslims are the main minority religious populations of France. In the population, they are about 70 million and 7 percent of the people as per cent. They are mainly from Algeria, Morocco, etc. from North African countries which are the former colonies of France. In the colonial period, the Algerians were recognized as the citizens of France, reaching the French territory. They are the big part of this Muslim population. If France did not spoil their country, they would not have to come to France. Apart from this, France also needed them to meet the deficit of labour force. After all these things, the French state could not think of equal to its Muslim citizens, even after coexisting for hundreds of years. The big part of the French Muslims is poor slum dwellers, their 30 percent are unemployed. Due to anti-Muslim attitude, they do not get private jobs, and the government is also ungenerous. Muslim children cannot carry any religious clothing or symbols in schools.

There are a number of reasons why Islamophobia is so prevalent in France today. The uprising of the poor in Paris in 2005, called the 'Paris riot' and the Yellow Vest movement in 2019 were left-leaning. The right, the French elite, spread Islamophobia to increase their power. The fake creation of 'Muslim problem' has succeeded in dispersing the alliance of the poor, the immigrants and the youth. This is how the French rightists are seeing their political future.

Macron just raised the sail in this wind as he was failing politically and economically. He has failed miserably in three serious places. His government also thinks that wearing mask is not necessary like President Trump. The historic recession of the French economy due to Macron's misguided economic policies and the weakening of the French social security system for the protection of the interests of the affluent class like Trump have brought down his popularity. Therefore, he needed to divert public attention for fear of losing the next election.

Incidents such as the 2015 Paris attack and this teacher killing have drastically changed French public opinion. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Macron still suspended many civil rights on the pretext of fighting terrorism. He has recently described Islam as a religion “in crisis” worldwide and introduced a new anti-Islamic separatism bill in parliament and pledged to reform French "Islam". Also the French authorities, in full state patronage, are displaying satirical cartoons of the Messenger of Allah in front of the multi-storey buildings to defend the so-called free speech.

Due to the display of cartoons of the Prophet (PBUH), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for a boycott of French products. The reason why the depiction of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) has become a source of serious objection for Muslims is that according to Islamic tradition, the making of images of Muhammad (PBUH) and Allah is strictly forbidden. Many French goods have been removed from some shops in Kuwait, Jordan and Qatar. There have also been protests against France in Bangladesh, Iraq, Libya and Syria. As the country is facing boycott in many countries, British foreign secretary, Dominic Robb called on NATO member states to stand by France.

Let's take a look at an incident in Britain. Peter Wright, a British detective, wrote a book. The book of ''Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer'' was first published from Australia in 1986.  In the book, Peter exposed many of the secrets of the British government. It included a history of Britain's plans and actions to assassinate Egyptian President Nasser. The British government was able to close the book through the courts before it was published. So, the author published the book from Australia. As much of the book began to appear in British newspapers, Margaret Thatcher's government banned him through the court. That the British government has thus curtailed the freedom of expression of a citizen of its country, now the country is calling international powers and organizations to bring France out of this crisis in support of free speech!

Freedom of speech can never be greater than human life and faith. If the purpose of freedom of speech is to establish a market of disrespect and hatred, then there will be no respect for people of different thoughts, beliefs or attitudes. It doesn't allow anyone to blaspheme one's belief and sentiment. Fundamental elements of secularism also deny spreading hatred. So, France is not defending free speech. It is using Muslims as a scapegoat to gain some political interests and carrying on preposterous ideology of secularism. Britain is supporting France which itself deprives its citizens from their right to freedom of speech. Thus the attempts of these two countries make hypocrisy win.

The writer is a student, Department of International Relations. University of Dhaka