Earlier this week, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin brazenly accused Karim Benzema of having ties to The Muslim Brotherhood, who are recognised as a terrorist organisation by many countries across the world.
Although Benzema himself has not directly responded to the accusations, his lawyer categorically denied them, and also threatened Darmanin with a defamation lawsuit.
However, that has not stopped Darmanin, who spoke to RMC Sport (via Diario AS) on Thursday amid his continued onslaught towards Benzema. He did address the comments from Benzema’s lawyers, although did not elaborate further.
“The complaint filed by his lawyers? It’s a judicial indictment. I will leave the answer to the courts. He has filed a complaint.
“Mr. Benzema is a great footballer, followed by millions of people. I’ve noticed that he still hasn’t tweeted about the murder of that teacher in Arras, nor has he tweeted about the beheaded babies, the raped women, the 1,300 massacred by Islamic terrorists in Israel. Terrorism is very insidious. It consists of using all the means of society – sports, music, influence on the Internet – to promote Islam.
“I would love for Mr Benzema to tweet about the murder of the professor in Arras. He is known for an extremely regorist Islam, with links, unfortunately, to people who have sometimes rejoiced at the murder of Samuel Paty, for example. We cannot be selective in our indignation. That is what “Frerism” is all about, unfortunately using selective messages in an insidious way, being able to show that through sport, music and society there is something different from radicalisation in a place of worship.
“Mr. Benzema is French, but I have the right to fight the idea that when you tweet about Palestinian civilians, it’s extremely surprising not to tweet about the 1,300 dead in Israel and not to tweet about the professor’s murder. You’ll see that this selectivity raises questions.
“I’m telling you that the Muslim Brotherhood is making extremely clever use of the opportunity to convey a profoundly anti-French message.”
This matter does not look like going away for the time being, and Darmanin certainly shows no signs of retracting his original allegations.
