CAGE responds to smears by French government agency for exposing Islamophobic persecution

On 27th April, the General Secretariat of the French government agency CIPDR (Comité Interministériel de Prévention de la Délinquance et de la Radicalisation) continued its disinformation propaganda targetting Muslim groups that expose the state sponsored persecution of Muslims in France, with a <a href="https://twitter.com/SG_CIPDR/status/1519347116447051777">Twitter thread</a> attacking CAGE. As usual, the unabashed Islamophobia of this body whose only aim is to whitewash the Islamophobia of the French state. Firstly, CAGE is an independent and community funded NGO which campaigns against state Islamophobia and advocates for justice. We are a ​​leading voice against the infrastructure of authoritarian laws and our work regularly features across the British mainstream and international media. We have worked with leading NGOs in the UK and globally. Our work has the support of countless allies including Julian Assange of Wikileaks, Noam Chomsky, Professors from prestigious universities in the UK including Oxford, US army veterans,  and 1000s of individual donors who sustain our work. We observe that not once did the CIPDR question the findings of <a href="https://www.cage.ngo/we-are-beginning-to-spread-terror-report">our report</a> showing that France conducted 24,877 inspections of Muslim establishments and closed 718 of them under its draconian 'Systematic Obstruction' policy. This is without mentioning the 46€ million extorted from an already impoverished Muslim community in France. This is an admission of guilt and their inability to deny these realities. We are far from being the only organisation to denounce French Islamophobia. Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and the Bridge Initiative of  the American Georgetown University - to name but a few - have done the same. And yet, the CIPDR chooses to exclusively target a Muslim organisation... Are we to understand then that the CIPDR only tolerates dissent and the freedom of opinion when expressed by a non-Muslim? It is unconscionable to instrumentalise, as the CIPDR has done in its thread, the killing of Samuel Paty by a lone actor to suppress the peaceful and legal campaigning of community organisers. Again, honest to its purpose - this allegation was only intended to terrify Muslims into silence so that they don’t object to hurtful and inflammatory content concerning their faith and beloved Prophet. Our Outreach Director Moazzam Begg is falsely smeared for having travelled to Afghanistan to build schools for girls before the US invasion. It’s worth noting the French government has a long history of  selective ‘Jihadism’ by supporting Mujahideen in Afghanistan in the past, even providing them with state visits! Recently, they supported the Mujahideen in Libya to topple Gaddafi. The CIPDR mentions our previous work highlighting the case of Anwar Al-Awlaki - what they omit is that he was a widely published imam - and that our interaction with him was prior to him joining Al-Qaeda. Again, underlining the absolute lack of integrity from CIPDR . They also make reference to Mohammed Emwazi, later known as 'Jihadi John' - as with all tabloids who never tire from misrepresenting our views. The basic truth is that CAGE never supported his actions. We stated what many of his friends and even his former teacher said about him. Are they also supporters of ISIS and his killings, or is that simply for Muslim who speak out unfavourably? The CIPDR is an official state agency yet it is headed by Christian Gravel, Manuel Valls' - former prime minister - right-hand man when the latter demanded more "whiteys , blancos" in the streets of Evry? The CIPDR is nothing more than a public salvation committee of contemporary Islamophobic terror. A general commissariat for Muslim issues, parallel to the one in force under Vichy for the Jewish people. These petty bully tactics intimidate no one and only betray the febrile state of the French government. We have nothing to learn from an authoritarian state in total decline; racist and Islamophobic. We will continue to defend Muslims in France, justice for all and expose France’s islamophobia. Tirelessly. Our struggle continues. Stronger than before. <strong>Read our report on France, <a href="https://www.cage.ngo/we-are-beginning-to-spread-terror-report">“We are Beginning to Spread Terror”: The State-Sponsored Persecution of Muslims in France</a></strong>