Seeing a bit of #fakenews from surprising corners here this morning.

France is NOT issuing Muslim children with a special id number to prevent radicalization.

It would not be possible: in France it is illegal for the State to record people’s religious affiliation.

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I think the origin is the very poorly worded @BBCNews article:

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-55001167

Specifically, the highlighted line implies Muslims are singled out. But the policy applies to ALL kids.

There’s lots wrong with French attitudes to Muslims, but this just isn’t true.

If you want to fact check the source, read the draft law is here (read article 19-20):

https://www.dalloz-actualite.fr/sites/dalloz-actualite.fr/files/resources/2020/11/projet_de_loi_confortant_les_principes_republicains.pdf

Macron also didn’t announce this measure in his Oct 2nd speech. The relevant passages are below, for the full speech see:

https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2020/10/02/la-republique-en-actes-discours-du-president-de-la-republique-sur-le-theme-de-la-lutte-contre-les-separatismes

Clearly none of this means that France doesn’t have a problem with racism and islamophobia. It DOES.

But this sort of #fakenews can be really dangerous in the current context.

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