World footballer a Muslim Brother?
Benzema wants to sue France’s interior minister
October 20, 2023, 6:25 p.m
Karim Benzema is causing a stir in France with a pro-Palestinian reaction. It has long been not just about the content of the post, but about serious accusations from the Interior Minister. The football superstar apparently wants to take legal action against them.
After his pro-Palestinian contribution to the Middle East conflict, the dispute between former world footballer Karim Benzema and France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin is coming to a head. According to a report in the newspaper “Le Parisien”, the star striker, who now plays in Saudi Arabia, is preparing a lawsuit against Darmanin. He had assumed that Benzema was close to the Muslim Brotherhood without providing any concrete evidence.
The background is Benzema’s post on social media on Sunday. “We pray for the people of Gaza, who have once again become victims of these unjust bombings that spare neither women nor children,” Benzema wrote, for which critics accused him of a one-sided view. Benzema’s lawyer, Hugues Vigier, replied: “Praying on October 15 for the civilian population hit by bombs that do not spare women or children is of course not propaganda for Hamas, not complicity in terrorism and not an act of collaboration.”
“Typical of the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood”
When asked by “Parisien”, the Interior Ministry explained that “for several years we have noticed a slow slide in Karim Benzema’s statements towards a hard, rigorous Islam, which is typical of the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology, which consists in rejecting Islamic norms various areas of society, especially in sport”.
On Friday, right-wing nationalist politician Marine Le Pen also made allegations against the player. “What is certain is that Mr. Benzema obviously has a fondness for the most radical Islamism, which some might call Islamist fundamentalism,” Le Pen told broadcaster RMC. Other conservative and right-wing radical politicians also attacked Benzema after his post.
In addition to a lack of compassion for the Israeli victims, Benzema is also accused of not having spoken out about the teacher who was stabbed to death by an Islamist in northern France on Friday last week. The Interior Minister said on BFMTV on Thursday evening that he would withdraw his statements about Benzema if he also mourned the death of the stabbed teacher.