France has taken a recent important decision to close the “Rabaa” satellite channel, which is the voice of the Muslim Brotherhood, the terrorist group, and which was broadcast via the French satellite “Eutelsat”. This French position expresses an important qualitative shift in French policy not only towards the Muslim Brotherhood, but toward the issues of the Middle East in general, as this position coincided with French President Francois Hollande’s visit to Riyadh and his unprecedented participation in the consultative summit held by the cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf in the Saudi capital recently.
Observers considered that the French decision is like a slap in the face of the terrorist group, and that it is a vital step in the direction of drying media and intellectual sources of terrorism, which is spread by the group across its diverse media machines. While others considered it a step in the direction of controlling the waves of incitement practiced for the continuation of violence and unrest inside Egypt.
In general, France has started to sense a kind of embarrassment because of the weakness of its position in the face of international terrorism, although it was at the forefront of its victims recently. However, it did not do much in response to this terrorism, and in drying its sources, as it barricaded itself in the area of hesitation, trying to harmonize its historical status as the defender of the freedom of opinion and thought on the one hand, and the need to confront terrorism and its organizations on the other hand. So, Paris has been showing a bit of hesitation and caution in dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood and other organizations for fear of being accused of confiscation of freedoms and of losing its position in this context. But France settled its position recently and was convinced that facing the terrorist ideology and closing its media loud speakers have nothing to do with its leading cultural role worldwide and that what is being repeated by terrorism satellite channels and terrorist groups has nothing to do with public freedoms, or expression of opinion and other flimsy justifications these groups invoke and use to deceive Western public opinion, which shows great care when approaching public freedoms topics.
One cannot be convinced with what some analysts say, which is that France did not provide enough in the fight against terrorism. France is an important part of the international campaign against terrorism, as it participated in military operations against terrorism since the attacks of September 11, 2001 and it addressed its organizations and its groups in various parts of the world, most recently in Mali, therefore, one cannot be convinced with the idea that France is trying to catch up with the fight against terrorism through the closing of the “Rabaa” channel and through addressing the media activity of the terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. What is more likely is that France has crystallized its attitude towards the Muslim Brotherhood and then has taken the decision to close the channel, a move which is not expected to be the last step in the French position against the Muslim Brotherhood, both inside France or globally.
