French far-right opposition leader Marine Le Pen has called for a ban to be imposed on immigrants from Bangladesh and Pakistan, amid the largest scale protests in the two Muslim nations against France and its President Emmanuel Macron, after he vowed to stand against Islamic terrorism.
Le Pen’s Tweet on October 31 roughly translates to: “In view of the new ultra-violent demonstrations today in Bangladesh (demonstrators who called to behead our ambassador), and Pakistan, I call for an immediate moratorium on immigration from these countries, in the name of national security. MLP.”
The French president’s resolute stance to tackle Islamic terrorism has infuriated many Islamic nations like Pakistan and Turkey, which took the lead to denounce the French president.
Au regard des nouvelles manifestations ultra-violentes aujourd’hui au #Bangladesh (manifestants qui ont appelé à décapiter notre ambassadeur), et au #Pakistan, je demande un moratoire immédiat sur l’immigration originaire de ces pays, au nom de la sécurité nationale. MLP
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) October 30, 2020
Muslims in the Middle East and the Arab world also called for a boycott of French products.
Recently, Bangladeshi Muslims also joined the other Islamic nations to protest against France and its president.
Thousands of Muslims hit the streets of Dhaka on Friday, calling for a boycott of French products. The protest erupted after Macron vowed to stand firm to guard French values following the knife attack in the city of Nice.
Who is Marine Le Pen?
Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front (FN) party, picked up several minor political roles in regional and municipal councils in her early 30s, and her most significant as a member of the European Parliament in 2009.
Her biggest break came after her father stepped down as FN leader in 2010, after which she took over the reins of the party.
In the followings years, Le Pen sought to shed the party’s far-right image, distancing herself and the party from her father’s Holocaust denial and racist outbursts, eventually expelling him from the party in 2015, making the FN more palatable to French conservatives and a coming generation that had little recollection of far-right rule under the Nazis.
However while the language has changed, the issues remain largely intact with Islam, the EU and immigration dominating her platform.
On France’s large Muslim minority, Le Pen has been unequivocal.
“We do not want to live under the rule or threat of Islamic fundamentalism,” she told supporters at the 2017 presidential election campaign, further condemning the hijab, prayer rooms in workplaces, the construction of mosques and Pork-free options in school lunches.
On the European Union, Le Pen has threatened to withdraw France from the eurozone and hold a referendum on the country’s continued membership of the bloc.
