Benzema complains that he is being compared to a terrorist and denies being a fundamentalist Muslim

Karim Benzema complains, according to his lawyer Hugues Vigier, that for reasons of “low politics” and electoralism he has been involved in a controversy that is affecting his children because they see that “their father is accused of being a terrorist”, and he denies the reproaches that he is a fundamentalist Muslim.

In an interview this Friday with the France Info station, Vigier charged against what he described as “hateful blackmail” by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who challenged the footballer to deny what he had stated about his proximity to the Muslim Brotherhood 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 its solidarity with the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, within the framework of Israel’s offensive.

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.”

About the French Interior Minister

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.

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

The lawyer, who expressed his conviction that this controversy, which has been started “for pure electoral reasons”, will only serve to fuel Islamophobia and the extreme right, stated that the footballer’s religious practice “is not at all radical, not at all”.

What’s more, he pointed out that when he told him by phone 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 religious or political message is specifically.”

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

Le Pen says Benzema is complacent “with the most radical Islamism”

The leader of the French far-right, Marine Le Pen, considers it evident that the footballer Karim Benzema is complacent “with the most radical Islamism”, but at the same time she criticizes the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who for political reasons has accused him of proximity with an integralist group.

In an interview with RMC on Friday, Le Pen denounced the controversy launched by Darmanin against Benzema, which she said was “a diversion” at a time when France is facing “serious problems” such as the rise of fundamentalism and the risk of attacks.

For Le Pen, “there is a contradiction” in the minister’s attitude, because although on the one hand he reproaches Benzema for his proximity to the Muslim Brotherhood, at the same time he has “never heard Darmanin ask for a ban on the Muslim Brotherhood.” an organization that for her has “a totalitarian ideology.”

Asked about the fact that the footballer’s lawyer has denied this proximity and has announced that he will file a complaint for libel against the Minister of the Interior, the leader of the far right replied that “that remains to be seen.”

Although he acknowledged that he does not have the precise information that the minister may have about the footballer, “what is clear is that there is a complacency on the part of Benzema with the most radical Islamism that some may call Islamic fundamentalism.

But he then pointed out that this cannot have any consequences “until this ideology has been banned, as we have been demanding for years,” and he criticized Darmanin’s inaction in this area.

Statements by the French Minister of the Interior

The Minister of the Interior reiterated this Thursday the accusations that he had already launched on Monday about what he called Benzema’s “notorious links” with the Muslim Brotherhood, without providing concrete evidence.

Darmanin’s theory is that the French international, who signed for a Saudi Arabian team this season after 14 years with Real Madrid, is a propaganda tool for a rigorous conception of the Muslim religion.

And that the Muslim Brotherhood uses precisely the notoriety of some personalities like him to popularize that vision.

The origin of the controversy in a message from Benzema in X

The origin of this controversy is a message from Benzema on his X account (formerly Twitter) in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in the context of Israel’s military offensive against that enclave.

For the minister, the fact that he did not do the same when the Hamas terrorist attacks occurred in Israel on October 7 or when in France a teacher was murdered on the 13th in his Arras high school by a jihadist highlights “a selective indignation.”

And he addressed a challenge to the athlete, urging him to post other messages on his social networks followed by millions of people condemning the Hamas attacks and the attack against the Arras professor to refute the accusations made against him. With EFE

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