Advertisement

Police to probe Le Pen over shocking Isis pics

The Local/AFP
The Local/AFP - [email protected]
Police to probe Le Pen over shocking Isis pics
Marine Le Pen. Photo: AFP

Furious French far-right leader Marine Le Pen could be in trouble with the law after tweeting a graphic propaganda image of an Isis beheading in response to a TV journalist who likened her National Front party to the jihadist group.

Advertisement

France's interior minister has asked the police to look into the posting of brutal Isis execution pics by Marine Le Pen on Wednesday.
 
Le Pen blew her top when reacting to comments by a French journalist who had asked his guest, a specialist on Islam, whether there were any comparisons to be made between terror group Isis and her far-right National Front Party.
 
Le Pen accused BFM TV journalist Jean-Jacques Bourdin of an "unacceptable exaggeration" and demanded he withdraw his words, before tweeting out a series of shocking images.
 
 
"This is Daesh (an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group)," Le Pen fired back in a series of tweets picturing brutal Isis atrocities.
   
In one image a bloodied body lay with his decapitated head on his torso, another depicted a man on fire in a cage, while a third showed a victim being driven over by a tank.
 
The faces of the some of the victims in the photos would be clearly recognizable.
   
Prime Minister Manuel Valls described the photos as "monstrous".
   
"Madame Le Pen: inflaming public debate, political and moral failing, non-respect for victims," he wrote on his Twitter account.

 

Then interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced that he had asked the police to investigate.

These photos are "Daesh (Isis) propaganda and represent an abjection, an abomination and real insult for all the victims of terrorism."

Bourdin, during his show known for combative one-on-one interviews, posed a question to Arab world expert Gilles Kepel in which he suggested there were "links" between FN and IS as both sought to push the French to cling to their cultural identity.

Kepel is not the first expert to suggest the association between the National Front and Isis.

Sociologist Samir Amghar, author of Salafism Today said the two groups share some common values, even if on the face of it, they are radically opposed.

“They share the same distrust of globalization and have a certain conservative vision,” he said. Other experts have simply pointed out that it's their intolerance towards others, desire for sovereignty and futile quest for a homogeneous state that most unites the two groups. 

At the very least there is a dependence on each other between the two groups.

“The Islamophobic discourse legitimizes the jihadist speech, which then legitimizes Islamophobic discourse,” says Amghar.

Le Pen's FN scored a record number of votes in regional elections on Sunday, boosted by concerns over the migrant crisis and terrorism, though they failed to win control of any regions.

The November 13th attacks in Paris which left 130 people dead led to Le Pen warning that, if Isis was not conquered, "Islamist totalitarianism will take power in our country".

SEE ALSO: How France is giving Isis exactly what it wants

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also