The coup-maker and the colonialist Islamophobe host each other at the Élysée Palace

In fact there should be nothing surprising in the photograph. A pair that has precisely found each other, they suit each other quite well. Is there any respect in which one falls short of the other? Is there any side on which one is more virtuous than the other? Is one less Islamophobic than the other? Is one less guilty than the other of distorting facts, committing human rights violations and shedding Muslim blood? Is one more democratic than the other? Is the other more insensitive than the first to human rights?

Two perpetrators of all the beliefs, values and practices that are the disgrace of our age have hosted each other. The French one rolled out the red carpets before the other; the other, with the courage he found, made the most self-assured speech he has been able to make in recent years, "against extremist groups and discourses." The first, ever since the day he was elected President, has been the target without interruption of the most extensive protest movements since the events of 1968. Because of the new press and security laws he has lately been trying to pass to suppress these protest movements, he has been exposed to a new wave of protest for laying the milestones of his dictatorship.

We are talking about the photograph given at the press conference and in their walk on the red carpet between French President Emmanuel Macron and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi, who usurped power by a bloody coup against an administration that had come to office through the first genuinely democratic elections in Egyptian history, who after seizing the government by coup suppressed the objections and demonstrations against him by having volleys fired and thousands of people massacred, and then, to destroy possible opposition, threw tens of thousands of people into dungeons without question or trial, within the framework of Sisi's official visit to Paris.

In his speech at the press conference held at the Elysée Palace, Macron states that France does not want to weaken Egypt's capacity to fight terrorism in the region, and says they will continue to sell arms to Egypt without making it conditional on human rights. The phrase "fight against terrorism" is precisely the skeleton key that opens the way for such dictators' every kind of human rights violation, their coups and their despotic practices.

Meanwhile, who cares about the torture and human rights violations suffered by tens of thousands of people who are still held innocent in Sisi's dungeons under inhuman conditions no better than medieval dungeons?

Normally, or rather in the name of official discourse, or still more precisely in the name of the values and discourses that are used against countries like Turkey when the occasion arises and on which France makes claims, such a photograph should have been impossible. Perhaps for this reason Antoine Madelin, an official of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in France, in all his innocence, criticized Macron regarding Sisi's Paris visit, saying: "While more than 60 thousand people are in detention in Egypt today because of their opinions, we are astonished that France is rolling out a red carpet for a dictator."

Of course Macron cannot completely ignore such criticisms either, and has stated that on human rights he favors dialogue rather than boycott, that differences of opinion can be spoken about openly, and that he does not want to make cooperation in economy and defense dependent on these differences.

In fact, if Macron really wanted to say something to Sisi on this matter, what would he say, or what could he say? Haven't they done everything together? Is what both of them call terrorism not the region's only democratic forces? Did France, which characterized as terrorist the legitimate administration in Libya officially recognized by the international community, not by cooperating with the coup-plotter Haftar become a partner in his coup-plotting, occupying, mass-massacring, torturing activities?

If he opens a chapter on human rights, won't they undermine all these activities of Haftar that they supported together? Wouldn't it be a spoilsport act for a team that set out with such complicity to talk about human rights in the middle of the road? Aren't these two together sending human rights to the bottom of the earth?

In an environment where Egypt, undoubtedly one of the most important centers of the Islamic world, had more recently drawn the anger of the entire Islamic world over hate speech against Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), it is also understood that this visit by Sisi contains a message of support and consolation. For this reason Macron naturally expresses his thanks. The symbolic meanings of this support and of this thanks toward him, and their reflections in the Islamic world, are undoubtedly very deep. It shows clearly all the lines along which the ranks are separating.

It reveals every face of the supporters of democracy and the coup-plotters in the Islamic world, of those who defend and represent the independence, dignity and welfare of their peoples, and of the greediest colonialists displayed against them and their collaborators.

To such an extent that the French media cannot refrain from announcing the meeting of Macron and the Egyptian junta leader Sisi through "hatred of Erdoğan." While the France 24 channel gave the summary of the two leaders' meeting with the words "Macron and Sisi agree that the common enemy is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan," it in fact also completes the real picture behind this ceremony of the coup-plotter and the colonialist hosting each other.