A Muslim contestant on the French version of The Voice has quit, following the surfacing of some detestable Facebook comments of hers, which seemed to question the terrorist nature of attacks in France.
A French Muslim woman has quit a TV singing competition amid criticism of comments she posted on Facebook after Islamic extremist attacks in 2016.
Mennel Ibtissem drew nationwide attention for a moving performance Saturday on French TV program ‘The Voice’ of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah.’ A French-born woman of Syrian origin, Ibtissem notably sang one passage in Arabic.
But within days of Saturday’s performance the 22-year-old was under pressure to bow out over old Facebook messages that appeared to question the terrorist nature of attacks that claimed scores of lives in France in 2016.
The posts have been deleted but screen grabs of the remarks have been circulated on far-right websites.
In one post after the July 2016 truck attack in the city of Nice and 86 people were killed, she said: ‘Here we go, it’s become a routine, an attack a week, and, as usual, the ‘terrorist’ takes his ID with him. It’s true that when you’re plotting something nasty you never forget to take your papers with you.’
She was referencing a series of jihadist assaults in France in which police quickly named the killers through documents found on their bodies, including the 2015 Paris attacks that killed 130 people.
In another post, days after two jihadists slit the throat of a priest in his Normandy church, she wrote: ‘The real terrorists are our government.’
The singer had apologised over the remarks, saying members of her family had been celebrating Bastille Day in Nice when the driver struck and that she had been ‘upset’ by the failure of the authorities to prevent the attack.
But the apology failed to quell the controversy.
With private broadcaster TF1 under pressure to pull her out of the competition, including from relatives of the victims of the Nice attack, she quit today.
‘I have faith in humanity and in people’s kindness,’ she said in a Facebook video.
The production company behind The Voice, ITV Studios France, said that despite her earlier apology the atmosphere on the show had become ‘too heavy’ and hoped her decision to withdraw would ‘soothe tensions’.
Naturally, Ibtissem had also made some anti-Israel posts. But these were not the reason for the huge backlash against her, and her leaving the show.
This hasn’t stopped anti-Israel sites from outright lying about her departure from the program. For example, PAL+ English makes no mention at all of the posts about the French terror attacks
https://www.facebook.com/palplusenglish/videos/1983655678318108/
Other sites do, but place the bigger emphasis on her “pro-Palestine” stance.
This includes Al Jazeera’s AJ+, who like to also imply Islamophobia is at play.
https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/1138831366258369/
By claiming her “pro-Palestine” stance is what got her into hot water – as opposed to offending most French people by questioning terror attacks against them – these sites are also perpetrating the antisemitic meme of the all-powerful Jewish/Israel lobby.
Just another day in the office for those sworn to Israel’s destruction, whose weapons are the keyboard and their readiness to lie, rather than the bomb.
