Mr. Darmanin, Minister of the Interior of the French government, is currently pushing for the implementation of a law known as “against separatism.” The project was created to fight against political Islam.
The first title of the law was: “a bill aimed at strengthening secularism and consolidating republican principles.” All of the planned measures clearly show that it is Islamism that is targeted by the law.
However, it should be noted that certain provisions may affect, as a consequence, other religions, particularly in the area of education.
But while some Muslim officials have instead agreed to such a move, others do not see it that way. Because the currents are very varied within Islam in France. This is the reason why there is not really a Muslim authority that can claim to represent all of Muhammad’s followers.
Certain currents are moreover quite frankly hostile to the law, in whole or in part. And during discussions with Minister Darmanin, he was able to clearly perceive the difficulty. He related this experience into the France Inter microphone, on February 1, with this tirade: “We can no longer have a discussion with people who refuse to write on a piece of paper that the law of the Republic is superior to the law of God.”
The next day, Mr. Darmanin reiterated his remarks at CNews and added: “There is a time when the state has to come in and say that the law is above faith.”
Mr. Darmanin thus tells us implicitly that Islam does not worship God. Actually, Islam claims to have received a divine revelation, the Koran, which, according to Muslims, is the very law of God given to men. If the laws of the Republic are above the law of Islam, then Allah is not God.
Or, another possibility is that the Republic is a god superior to Allah, entitled to impose its law upon it. Which, come to think of it, is thought by a number of republicans.
We thus see, quite unexpectedly, Mr. Darmanin clearly denying Islam the status of religion. Even though he may not have understood that his words had this consequence. His interlocutors, in any case, have perfectly felt and understood it. That is why the minister is encountering such opposition.
But if all religions are concerned, let Mr. Darmanin know that, for his part, no Catholic can accept to say or write that “the law of the Republic is superior to the law of God,” without thereby renouncing his religion. Nor can he accept that “the law is above the faith.”
The Church has sowed many martyrs over the centuries, many of whom have offered their blood for refusing this kind of formulation. The empires or regimes that put them to death are gone, but the Church is still there.
Mr. Darmanin also will die one day, and the Fifth Republic will also disappear with its laws.
But Christians and their laws, with their faith transformed in the vision of God, will reign eternally with Christ, true King of the nations, who laughs at the claims of men who want to take themselves for God.
