Controversy grows around Karim Benzema (Lyon, 35 years old) after the French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, accused him on Tuesday on a television set of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that some countries consider a group terrorist, including Saudi Arabia, where the footballer lives. In France he is not included in the list.
Senator Valérie Boyer, of the conservative party of The Republicans, requested this Wednesday in a statement spread on social networks that, if the minister’s statements are confirmed, the Ballon d’Or that he won in 2022 and also his French nationality be withdrawn.
“If these statements are true, we must consider sanctions against Karim Benzema. A symbolic one, such as withdrawing the Ballon d’Or. Afterwards, we should withdraw his nationality. We cannot accept that a French binational, internationally known, can fail in honor and thus betray our country”.
In reality, Darmanin did not provide evidence of his claims: “Mr. Benzema has a notorious link, we all know, with the Muslim Brotherhood,” the minister limited himself to saying in an interview with the conservative network Cnews.
The minister was responding to a question about the publication of a message on the social network X (formerly Twitter) in which the former Real Madrid footballer gave his support to the population of Gaza. He asked to pray “for its inhabitants, victims once again of unjust bombings.” In this conflict, France is aligned with Israel, since the largest Jewish community in Europe lives in its territory. Also 10% Muslims.
This controversy occurs at a time when France is on maximum alert for a terrorist attack, after the Islamist attack last Friday at an institute in which a teacher was stabbed to death. The minister’s environment has been explained to several French media and he has justified his statements in “the slow drift” of the footballer (born in France but of Algerian origin) “towards a hard, rigorous Islam, characterized by an ideology of the Brotherhood that consists in disseminating Islamic norms in different spaces of society, especially in sports.
“When you have the audience and influence that Benzema has, this ambiguity and running the risk of damaging national unity is a form of separatism,” said the senator.
Benzema, the first Frenchman to win the Ballon d’Or after Zinedine Zidane and winner of five Champions Leagues with Real Madrid, has just signed for AI Ittihad, a team from Saudi Arabia. This country does consider the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. Also Egypt and some countries that do not include France.
This Islamist organization was born in Egypt and its objectives are the creation of a Muslim state and the non-violent fight against Western civilization. The Minister of the Interior considers that this brotherhood “creates an atmosphere of jihadism.”
Interior disgraces Benzema for his “proselytism on the networks around Muslim worship, such as fasting or prayer,” the minister’s entourage has pointed out to Le Parisien. On the footballer’s Instagram account there are mainly photos with the Real Madrid shirt. A few days ago he published one in which he appeared in typical Saudi clothing and celebrated “Saudi Arabia day.” In statements to Le Parisien, an advisor to the footballer has declared that “it is false, Karim Benzema has never had the slightest relationship with that organization.”
Benzema’s history with France is one of disagreements: he was already criticized for not singing the Marseillaise when he played for the France team. “La Marseillaise urges war and I don’t like that,” he justified to Vanity Fair. He didn’t play in the Qatar World Cup either and even refused to be in the box in the final.