The Telegraph said that “a far-right local councillor shocks Marine Le Pen’s party by becoming a Muslim and sending Front National officials a video in which he urges them to embrace Islam.”
The decision, as reported by the Leading British news outlet, may seem very shocking to Marine Le Pen’s party, and the invitation to embrace Islam may be seen as “adding more salt to injury,” especially given the fact that officials from the said party are well-known for their anti-immigration and anti-Islam stances.
The convert, in his video, praised the Muslims’ holy book, the Quran, and asked Le Front National members to join him.
“Like Islam, the FN defends the weakest. The party denounces exorbitant interest rates charged on the debt of our country, and Islam is against the practice of usury,” Maxence Buttey said, The Telegraph reported.
“Front National and Islam have much in common,” Buttey, further noted.
“Islam did not call for believers to cut off heads as the ISIL (terrorist) group does,” he added.
Buttey said he had decided to convert after lengthy discussions with the local imam, whom he met while campaigning for Le Front National earlier this year.
According to the aforementioned source, the newly convert was suspended from a regional Front National committee, but “Mr Buttey remains a party member and a Councillor. The party has no power to sack him from the post.”
“Some of my voters will be disappointed by my choice, but I’m ready to explain to them that Islam has a mission to unite all men and women.”
“I am against the niqab,” he added.
“I was Catholic but when I reread the Bible I noticed all its inconsistencies,” he said. “When I read the Quran thoroughly, I understood that this religion is more open.”
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Front National, has objected to schools serving Halal meat for Muslim pupils, a controversial issue in France, which has banned the wearing of the full-face veil in public and headscarves in state schools. It has Europe’s largest Muslim population, estimated at six million.
The Moroccan Times.
