The controversy around Karin Benzema, or against Karim Benzema, continues. Two days ago the French Interior Minister accused him of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that in some countries such as Russia or Saudi Arabia (not in France) is considered a terrorist group. Today the far-right politician Éric Zemmour has gone further, linking the former Real Madrid player to the terrorist attack last Friday at a high school in which a teacher was stabbed to death. Benzema is going to sue him for defamation.
“We know that he played for the French team solely for money and sporting results. (…) He is not French at heart, he has never loved France,” the leader of the Reconquista party said on television.
“What I know is that (Benzema) is a Muslim and that means he wants to apply sharia (law) and sharia provides for jihad and jihad means killing Dominique Bernard,” the politician said in an interview in the France 2 network. The presenter asked him again, and he reaffirmed his statements: “Absolutely, I link it directly.”
In theory, the origin of the controversy is the tweet published by the footballer, born in France but of Algerian origin, in which he asked to pray “for the population of Gaza, victims once again of unjust bombings.”
This morning, in an interview with Benzema’s lawyer on another channel (BFM), the presenter asked him if publishing a message in support of Gaza and not doing so to mourn the death of the professor murdered on Friday is “selective indignation” over the victims.
“Mr. Zemmour says that my client has a direct link with the murder of the professor in Arras. This reveals a drift. And it is not the Islamist drift of Karim Benzema. It is the drift of the mentality of our political class and that worries me” , the lawyer of the former Real Madrid footballer, Hugues Vigier, told the newspaper Libération.
Senator Valérie Boyer, of the conservative party of The Republicans, asked on Wednesday that the Ballon d’Or he won in 2022 be withdrawn and also his French nationality if, as the Interior Minister says, Benzema is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The head of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, made these statements on Tuesday. He did not provide evidence, and his cabinet later had to clarify that what upsets the minister is “the drift towards a harsh Islam”, which he published on social networks.
This controversy surrounding the French player occurs at a time when France is on maximum alert due to the terrorist threat and in the midst of the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. France is home to 10% Muslims and has the largest Jewish community in Europe.
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. His history with France is full of disagreements: he was already criticized for not singing the Marseillaise when he played for the national team. He was international with France between 2007 and 2022. That year he no longer played in the Qatar World Cup.