Enfant terrible or a disguised Islamist? The Karim Benzema case is a mystery

He scored 37 goals for the French national team and was awarded the Ballon d’Or in 2022. But in France, Karim Benzema remains an enfant terrible who violently polarizes people.

The Algerian-born striker never sang along to the Marseillaise before Bleus matches. Although he was sentenced to a suspended prison sentence in 2021 for complicity in blackmail, he is happy to become a spokesperson for the banlieue youth and testifies that France has a “racist part”. Many compatriots simply do not understand Benzema: he drives a Ferrari, but encourages his 20 million X subscribers to asceticism and pilgrimages to Mecca.

All of this is coming into play as the ex-Real Madrid star makes headlines again. On the former Twitter platform, Benzema immediately received 600,000 likes – but also strong objections.

Conservative MEP Nadine Morano said it was “shocking” that he had not said a word against terrorism or the 17 French people killed in the Hamas attack, but had rather cultivated “selective outrage”. Right-wing extremist Eric Zemmour wonders why Benzema remained silent about the recent murder of a teacher by a white jihadist in the northern French city of Arras.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, a close confidante of President Emmanuel Macron, has the answer: he accuses Benzema of having a “clear link with the Muslim Brotherhood,” that is, with Egyptian Islamists. “Certain information” points to this, said the head of the French police and secret services.

However, he did not become more precise. His spokesman then weakened the claim that Benzema fell into “hard, strict Islam, as is characteristic of the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood” because of his statements.

Benzema, currently playing for Al-Ittihad club in Saudi Arabia, has announced through his lawyer in Paris that he will sue Darmanin for defamation. The lawyer refuted the popular demand in France to revoke Benzema’s French citizenship by pointing out that this was not possible because the Lyon-born footballer did not have a second Algerian passport.

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The star attacker receives support from left-wing leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon: Benzema is “demonized”, even though he is a “remarkable person”, according to the politician, who is one of the few in France to refuse to describe the Hamas militia as a terrorist .

Benzema is in the middle of the debate about the Middle East, which is always very heated in France due to the fear of a banlieue intifada in Paris or Marseille: France is home to the largest religious communities in Europe: Muslims (six million) and Jews (600,000). ).

The footballer’s statement also concerns the football world. Parisian media found a statement from the Frenchman in June when he moved from Real Madrid to the Saudi Pro League: “As a Muslim, it was important for him to play in a Muslim country,” he said at the time. His wife, an American, converted to Islam at the same time.

Ronaldo also covered himself

At the end of September, the Frenchman appeared not very French on the Saudi national holiday, but in the traditional costume of Saudi men. In Paris, right-wing populist Jordan Bardella, referring to Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi state religion, said: “I think Benzema is a companion of Islamist ideology.”

But star players such as the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo also appeared on the national holiday with the ghutra headgear, a white kandura robe and a sparkling sabre. This led to further comments in France that European-style football was clearly shifting its focus further to the Gulf after the World Cup in Qatar.

This is not Benzema’s fault, but the fault of FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, who is using all tricks and tricks to offer the Saudis the 2034 World Cup. This criticism is also echoed in the Benzema affair. Accompanied by the basic feeling of many Europeans that their former way of life is currently being put to a severe test.

(aargauerzeitung.ch)