French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin defended his declare that Karim Benzema has hyperlinks with the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday, insisting the star footballer’s “selective” social media posts confirmed he was hiding one thing.
Darmanin, a troublesome-speaking proper-winger with designs on the presidency, made the accusation final week after Benzema posted his help for the residents of Gaza throughout its bombardment by Israel.
French senator Valerie Boyer has referred to as for footballer Karim Benzema’s Ballon d’Or award to be revoked and his citizenship stripped after latest statements on the Israeli occupation’s aggression in Gaza.It additionally comes on the heels of French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin… pic.twitter.com/uqC6soMnIX
— • (@Alhamdhulillaah) October 20, 2023
READ: Karim Benzema, French Minister Clash Over ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ Link Accusations
The bombings had been triggered by an assault by Palestinian Hamas militants, who stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7 and killed at the least 1,400 folks, principally civilians, kidnapping 222 others.
More than 6,500 Palestinians, primarily civilians, have been killed throughout the Gaza Strip in relentless Israeli retaliatory strikes, in keeping with the most recent toll from the Hamas well being ministry in Gaza.
Benzema, the French worldwide ahead now enjoying in Saudi Arabia, has an “extraordinary societal responsibility”, Darmanin mentioned, referring to his fame and social media following.
“You might ask why the interior minister reacts to the tweet of a footballer, but when he touches 20 million people I think it’s my role to denounce that,” Darmanin instructed an viewers of French group leaders throughout a visit to Abu Dhabi.
“Because you could ask what is a footballer doing tweeting a political opinion, and when he does it he does it in a selective way.
“I think personally that that is hiding something, and not to see it is naive.”
After Benzema posted on X, previously Twitter, his prayers for the “victims of these unjust bombings”, Darmanin alleged final week that Benzema “has a notorious link with the Muslim Brotherhood”, a Sunni Muslim Islamist group with its origins in Egypt.
Benzema’s lawyer has insisted the declare is fake.
Toutes nos prières pour les habitants de Gaza victimes une fois de plus de ces bombardements injustes qui n’épargnent ni femmes ni enfants.— Karim Benzema (@Benzema) October 15, 2023
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Darmanin mentioned he had “nothing against” Benzema, however that it was “astonishing” that the footballer had not tweeted in help of the Israelis killed in the Hamas assault, or the French trainer stabbed to loss of life by an Islamist former pupil earlier this month.
“I publicly called for him to tweet for that teacher who for absolutely nothing, is dead because of Islamist terrorism, and he didn’t do it,” the minister mentioned, in reply to a query from the ground.
Islamist “separatism” can present itself in varied methods together with by way of charities, instructing and music, in addition to “athletes who subscribe to a Salafist ideology, close to the Muslim Brotherhood”, Darmanin added.
“Not to see it is to lie to people,” he instructed the operate on the French ambassador’s residence in the United Arab Emirates capital, the place he met senior officers together with President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.
Benzema, who’s Muslim, joined Al-Ittihad in Jeddah, the gateway to the holy metropolis of Mecca, on a profitable contract earlier this yr.
The 35-yr-outdated reigning Ballon d’Or winner had been because of tackle the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh earlier on Wednesday, however the look was cancelled.
(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – AFP)
