Protesting against everything under the sun has become a second nature of the Aligarh Muslim University students. After unwarrantedly protesting against the CAA and wanting to dig ‘Hindutva ki kabar’, the students in AMU have now railed against French President Emmanuel Macron for his remarks against Islamic terrorism and his government’s severe measures to Jihadi violence in its bud, by holding a protest and demanding for boycott of French products.
Protest marches were held at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in opposition to French President’s comments against radical Islam and corresponding extremism amidst the increasing spate of terror attacks happening in many cities across Europe. The protest in AMU comes after Congress leader organised a protest in Bhopal where thousands of Muslims participated.
AMU students call for the boycott of French-made products in their protest against President of Franch, Emmanuel Macron
Students shouted anti-Macron slogans at the matches and carried signs that called for a blanket boycott of French products. The angry protesters also resorted to burning posters of the French President even as France endured another Islamist attack at the iconic Notre-Dame de l’Assomption Basilica in Nice, where three people were killed, including a woman who was beheaded, vindicating his stand on Islamic extremism.
The protest started from AMU’s Duck Point to the Baba Syed Gate via Engineering College, Deeniyat Department, Art Faculty, Vice-Chancellor Lodge, Staff Club.
Students who partook in the protests were aggrieved by Macron’s remarks for Islamic extremism and asserted that his remarks were intolerable for the Muslims across the world. Many of them called for economic punishments to France by observing a sweeping boycott of the products produced by the country. The protesters urged the participants to stop buying and using French products.
AMU students have often been at the centre of controversies for their unwarranted participation in demonstrations that rarely affected the country or its population. Last year, AMU was at the centre of the furore after the protests carried out against the passage of the CAA descended into chaos and violence. Even then, AMU protesters resorted to demonstrations on a Bill that had no bearing on the citizens of the country and was meant to provide Fastrack means for persecuted minorities in the neighbouring three countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to apply for citizenship of India.
President Macron’s remarks against Islamic radicalisation draws the ire of the Muslim world
The recent protests in AMU have roots in French President Emmanuel Macron’s trenchant criticism of the Islamic radicalism that plagues the country and much of Europe. The remarks came in the aftermath of the death of a Paris teacher, who was beheaded by an Islamist for showcasing the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad in his class.
In a moving tribute to Samuel Paty, the deceased teacher, French President hailed him as “quiet hero” and called upon the need to build an Islam of Enlightenment” in the country, an expression that raised the hackles of many leaders in the Muslim world.
Since the killing of the Paris teacher, stringent measures have been adopted by many European countries, particularly France, to curb the menace of Islamism. Several mosques, believed to be the centres of breeding radicalism and extremism were temporarily closed down by the country. Such measures have been used by the leaders of the Muslim world to deflect their populations’ attention away from the domestic issues and mobilise them against the West.
Muslim leaders take offence on Macron’s remarks to secure their tenuous grip on power
From Pakistan PM Imran Khan, who is beleaguered in his own country following the fiasco between Sindh Police and Pakistani Army, to Turkey’s authoritarian ruler Recep Erdogan, who chomps at the bit of burnishing his Islamic credentials, have come out stridently in condemning Macron and to rally their Muslim population against the Europeans.
Yesterday, even former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad came out of the woodwork and posted a bizarre yet a despicable thread on Twitter, calling for the killing of Europeans for their “excesses” against Muslims.
