Benzema complains about being considered a terrorist and denies being a fundamentalist Muslim

2023-10-20 11:43:20

Football player Karim Benzema he complains, according to his lawyer Hugues Vigierthat for reasons of “low politics” and electoralism they have put him in a controversy that is affecting his children because they see that “their father is accused of being a terrorist“, and denies accusations that he is a fundamentalist muslim.

In an interview this Friday with the France Info station, Vigier attacked what he described as “hateful blackmail” by the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmaninwho challenged the footballer to deny what he had stated about his proximity to the Muslim Brothers and about his “selective indignation.”

Darmanin pointed out this Thursday that if Benzema wanted to “show his good faith” he had to publish on his social networks a message condemning the jihadist attack on the 13th in Arra, in which a teacher was murdered in his high school, just as he had shown his solidarity with the Palestinians from Gaza Stripwithin the framework of the offensive Israel.

political value

The athlete’s lawyer replied that he believes that “under these conditions, he will not have much desire to do so” and that his client is not the one who has to show his good intentions, but rather the minister, who would have to “have the political courage” to admit that what he said about him is “false.”

For Vigier, Darmanin’s words last Monday in which he pointed out his alleged closeness to the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist movement banned in some countries, but not in France, have been “devastating” and have a “dramatic” impact for Benzema.

All our prayers for the inhabitants of Gaza who are once again victims of these unjust bombings which spare no women or children.

— Karim Benzema (@Benzema) October 15, 2023

He said that last night he was talking to him and the footballer told him: “I have heard so many things about me and so many unfair things. But now it is my children who suffer because they accuse their father of being a terrorist.”

The lawyer, who was convinced that this controversy that has been launched “out of pure electoralism” will only serve to fuel Islamophobia and the extreme right, stated that the footballer’s religious practice “is not radical at all, for nothing”.

What’s more, he pointed out that when he told him by telephone about the reproaches that the Minister of the Interior made him for his proximity to that fundamentalist group, he told him: “I don’t know what the Muslim Brotherhood is. I don’t know what that organization corresponds to, what its purpose is. religious or political message in a specific way”.

The footballer – the lawyer added – had indeed heard the name of that group “but without knowing what that term corresponded to.”

“Notorious links”

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The leader of the French extreme right also entered Darmanin’s diatribe against the former French international this Friday, Marine Le Penfor which “it is clear that there is a complacency on the part of Benzema with the most radical Islamism that some may call Islamic fundamentalism.”

The minister spoke of the player’s “notorious links” with the Muslim Brotherhood but without providing concrete evidence, alleging that it is an instrument of propaganda for a rigorous conception of the Muslim religion and that this organization uses the notoriety of some personalities to popularize that vision.