[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Macron has coined the term 'separatism' to describe the underworld that thrives in some neighborhoods around France where Muslims with a radical vision of their religion take control of the local population to inculcate their beliefs.
But members of France's six-million-strong Muslim community — the largest in Western Europe — immediately accused him of stirring up Islamophobic and racist feeling so as to appeal to far-Right voters.
A new law will allow the dissolution of religious groups that 'attack the dignity of people, using psychological or physical pressure, and break the values of France'.
There will also be an end to the system of 'seconded Imams' which allows extremist clerics and other preachers to be trained abroad before moving to France.
He said all French Imams would have to be certified from now on and could be shut down at any time.
The equivalent of more than £9.7million will be spent of work France's Islam Foundation – a moderate organisation which promotes traditional Muslim study in culture, history and science.
Mr Macron said this would help to ensure the dominance of a religion 'respects the values ​​of the Republic'.
Some 1,700 private Muslim school and colleges currently teach around 85,000 children in France.
The law is expected to go before parliament for debate in the first part of next year. |