FRANCE and ISLAM - Have You Heard of the "Affaire Mila?"

[Ouistreham]

A heated debate has been raging for three weeks in France about the teenage girl Mila who dared to say what she thinks of Islam.
The case has been virtually unreported in the international media so far.



What is the 'Affaire Mila' and what does it say about France and Islam?

If you've been following French news you might have heard of the 'Affaire Mila' - but what exactly happened and what does it say about France's sometimes troubled relationship with Islam?

Who is Mila?

Mila is a 16-year-old schoolgirl from the Grenoble area who has found herself at the centre of a row over the right of freedom of speech and Islamophobia in France, all stemming from a video she made on Instagram.

What happened?

It all started very innocuously, with Mila live-streaming a video on Instagram of herself doing her makeup. Recounting what happened next on popular French chatshow Le Quotidien on Monday, Mila said: "A guy was hitting on me heavily during the live, telling me 'you're beautiful, you're hot, what age are you?". She duly informed those watching that she was a lesbian and that "blacks and Arabs" were not her type.

Cue a stream of insults and threats, followed by her now infamous response, spoken directly to camera.

"The Koran is a religion of hatred, there is only hatred in it. Islam is shit, your religion is shit," she said, describing in lewd terms what she would do to "your god".

What was the reaction?

Well the end part of the video, with her offensive comments about Islam, was widely shared on social media.

Some people supported her - the hashtag #jesuismila has been trending on Twitter - but others did not and she was subject to a massive barrage of abuse and death threats.

The situation became so bad that her regional education board advised her to stay at home for her own safety.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced that the teen,whose full name has been withheld by French media, and her family had been put under police protection.

That's terrible, but why has one video by a teenager caused such a furore?

Well it's always hard to predict exactly why some things cause a social media storm, but in this case the subject matter is one that France has grappled with over the years. The Mila affair comes just over five years after a group of French cartoonists from the Charlie Hebdo magazine which had poked fun at the Prophet Mohammed were gunned down by jihadists.

About 8 percent of the population of France is Muslim - although many French people when asked to guess put the figure at about 30 percent. France does not record people's religion or ethnicity on its census data due to laïcité rules. France's principle of laïcité - the strict separation of the state from any form of religion - means that blasphemy is not illegal.

The principles of secularism have also lead to laws that ban any form of religious clothing from all public buildings - including schools.

Periodically there are clashes between secularism and the freedom to practice religion, which frequently seem to take the form of battles over Muslim women's clothing - whether its Muslim mums in headscarves accompanying school trips or women wearing the full body burkini swimsuit on the beach.

And perhaps this is why the Affaire Mila has seen politicians of all parties getting involved.

What have they said?

Rassemblement National leader Marine Le Pen tweeted: "This young girl is braver than the whole political class in power over the past 30years."

But some on the left, like former Socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal, appeared torn between the desire to defend the unfettered free speech for which the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists died and reprimand the teen for herfoul-mouthed outburst.

While defending Mila's "total" freedom to criticise a religion, Royal said she should have shown more "respect, manners and knowledge" and should not be made into "a paragon of freedom of expression."

Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet declared the death threats received by Mila were "unacceptable in a democracy" but added her remarks about Islam were "clearly an infringement on freedom of conscience". Belloubet's remarks caused an outcry from the opposition with the Republicans' leader in the lower house of parliament Damien Abad fuming: "It's called freedom of expression!"

"You reap what you sow", a senior member of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), Abdallah Zekri, told French radio, arguing that the youngster had "asked for it" (the threats).

https://www.thelocal.fr/20200205/wha...ance-and-islam

Mila actually said: "In the Quran there is only hatred in there, Islam is shit. I said what I thought about it, you are not going to make me regret it. There are still people who will get excited, I clearly don’t give a damn, I say what I want, what I think. Your religion is shit, your God, I put a finger in its asshole, thank you, goodbye.”

While we're at it, you can classify Mila if you want:

With tons of make-up:


Clean:


Self portrait:

[Marmara]

Muslims brought this on themselves. They need to understand that they can't prove Islam is a great religion without producing counter-argument to those who say it isn't, and trying to silence them instead.

Living in a muslim country with Muslim heritage i know what an average Muslim thinks. Average Muslim thinks that Islam is so obviously great that it speaks for itself, so Islam doesn't need to be defended and anyone who insults Islam is just trying to be hateful and mean.