![Newly-appointed Prime Minister and President of the Democratic Movement (MoDem) party Francois Bayrou speaks during the handover ceremony at the Hotel Matignon in Paris,France on December 13, 2024. [Mustafa Yalçın - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AA-20241213-36477147-36477143-FRENCH_PRESIDENT_MACRON_NAMES_FRANCOIS_BAYROU_AS_NEW_PRIME_MINISTER.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou today rejected turning Islam into a political focus or pitting French people against each other.
“I have no desire to make Islam an obsession in French society. I know it’s fashionable … but we must live together,” Bayrou said in an interview with French broadcasters BFMTV and RMC.
“I believe that in France, atheists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists … we will have to live together,” he said. “We must not continually engage in this kind of one-upmanship that sets the French against one another.”
“I don’t believe that this is the way to address questions about the shared life of different communities and religious sensitivities in France,” he added.
Over the past week, Islam in France has been at the centre of heated controversy following the release of a controversial report on the alleged “entryism” of the Muslim Brotherhood in French institutions.
Bayrou also distanced himself from the former French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s recent proposal to ban headscarves for girls under 15.
“I don’t know what that even means … How would you do it? Would police officers on the street tell a young girl, ‘Show me your ID so I can check your age?’” he asked.
French President Emmanuel Macron has also addressed the Muslim Brotherhood report, saying Muslims “they are at peace, they love the republic,” urging people to “stop mixing everything up.”
Read: Macron reviews report accusing Muslim Brotherhood of undermining secular values