Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front (FN) party, has accused the French government of failing to tackle Islamic fundamentalists, in part by its reluctance to call them just that. The controversy over using of the word "Islamist" in tandem with "extremists" or "militants" is not new, but it has moved to the front burner in the wake of La Belle France's recent terrorist attacks ‐ its deadliest in over 50 years.
In an opinion piece for the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
, Le Pen specifically targeted Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, but blamed the entire political establishment for allegedly not "looking the enemy in the eye" and for its lack of vigilance.
"It does our Moslem compatriots no favors to fuel suspicions and leave things unspoken. Islamist terrorism is a cancer on Islam, and Moslems themselves must fight it at our side," she wrote in the op-ed published on Sunday.
Le Pen, in typical fashion, then used the platform to rail against Europe's system of open internal borders, and "massive waves of immigration, both legal and clandestine".
Fabius has made no secret of his dislike of the word "Islamic" or "Islamist" when speaking about home-grown or foreign jihadists.
Speaking on Europe 1 radio on January 11, two days after the French-born Kouachi brothers yelled "Allahou Akbar", or God is great in Arabic, as they bumped off 12 people at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo
...
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe..., Fabius explained:
"I don't want to play the role of censor, but I think the word Islamist ... is not the right one to use. I call them terrorists. Because as soon as you use the word Islam, you are promoting an idea of continuity between a Moslem ‐ who practises his religion, which is a religion of peace ‐ and something which is an interpretation of the Moslem religion."