On July 9, 2025, Republic Square , the beating heart of the French Republic, was transformed into an open-air mosque. Prayer rugs stretched across the plaza, heads bowed in unison, as the Mouride Brotherhood, a powerful Islamic movement with roots in Senegal, staged a mass religious gathering in a space that was never meant for religion at all, but for liberty, secularism, and national unity.

The event was not spontaneous, nor was it a casual display of cultural expression. It was organized, deliberate, and publicly promoted as being “for the promotion of peace, tolerance, forgiveness, and living together, according to the doctrine and teachings of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Khadim Rassoul.” That wording sounds innocuous enough. But behind it lies an ideology with global ambition, forged during French colonial rule in Africa, and now repackaged as a vehicle for soft Islamic assertion in the heart of Europe.

Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, the figure invoked in the event’s mission statement, was a Senegalese Sufi leader who founded the Mouride Brotherhood in the late 19th century as a spiritual resistance movement to French occupation. Though he rejected violent confrontation, Bamba’s goal was clear: the Islamization of society through discipline, mass mobilization, and the rejection of Western secular values. He called for complete submission, not to the colonial state, but to Islamic spiritual authority. His legacy lives on through the Mourides, who now wield enormous religious, economic, and cultural power, including far outside Senegal.

So when a Mouride crowd gathers in Paris’s most symbolic civic square — not in a mosque, but in a public space synonymous with secular democracy — and declares it an event inspired by Bamba’s teachings, it is not merely a moment of spiritual reflection. It is a public declaration of cultural and religious intent. It is a message: France is no longer secular territory. It is contested ground.

And what did French authorities do? Nothing. Not a single police intervention. Not a word from Macron. Not a whisper from the Interior Ministry. Just silent, obedient acceptance.

Make no mistake: this wasn’t about prayer. It was about power.

Islam has a long, documented history of marking territory through public, highly visible prayer in symbolic spaces. It’s not incidental — it’s intentional. These events are not mere cultural expressions; they are deliberate shows of presence, rooted in a history of triumphalist expansion. They don’t choose symbolic spaces like Republic Square at random. They choose them to make a statement. To test resistance. To signal that Islam is no longer just part of the Republic — it now seeks to rise above it.

If this were merely a religious gathering, why not hold it in one of the thousands of mosques across France? Why not use community centers, private halls, or even the vast open spaces in Parisian suburbs where Muslim populations are concentrated? The answer is simple: visibility is the goal. The conquest only counts when it’s on display — and when it happens in the symbolic heart of your national identity.

They chose Republic Square, a monument to secularism, the French Revolution, and the universal rights of man, to assert something very different. They chose it to honor a religious figure whose teachings, while cloaked in the language of peace, promote the spread of Islamic doctrine into every corner of society. This wasn’t devotion. This was a political act.

And the French state? Submissive. Paralyzed. Terrified of being called “intolerant.” The silence from French leadership was deafening — and telling. Because even in Muslim-majority countries, such mass public prayers would never be allowed at secular landmarks. There are rules. There is order. But in France, the doctrine of laïcité now seems to apply only to Christians and Jews. Islam, somehow, is always the exception.

And then the media act shocked when citizens speak of invasion. When they say they feel like strangers in their own land. When they demand control over immigration and the steady erosion of their national identity. But how can anyone be surprised? You let a foreign religious movement lay symbolic claim to your capital’s most sacred secular square without resistance — and you expect people not to notice?

This is what cultural surrender looks like.

One of the only political voices to call it what it was came from Henda Ayari, a French politician, author, and former Muslim who has been outspoken against the rise of Islamism. In a powerful post, she condemned the July 9 gathering at République as a “provocation” and a “shame,” writing: “Even in Muslim countries, no one would dare cover national squares with prayer rugs. Why do we accept here what would be forbidden elsewhere?” Ayari warned that transforming a national civic space into a place of worship was not an act of peace, but a violation of France’s secular identity and a direct provocation to the public. “Many Muslims in France reject these practices,” she wrote. “They know that forcing religion into the street does not build peace, it builds backlash.” Her words struck a nerve because they came from experience and because they told the truth: what happened was not inclusion. It was submission.

And it’s not just France. We’ve seen the same pattern play out across the West — in New York, in Toronto, in London. These are trial balloons, staged provocations meant to see how far Islamists and their allies can go before governments dare say “no.” With every silent capitulation, the goalposts move. And with each victory — no matter how symbolic — the line between coexistence and capitulation blurs further.

If the French people do not push back, hard and fast, they will find themselves in a nation where the symbols of their Republic no longer belong to them.

This wasn’t just a gathering. It was another warning shot.

And now the truth must be faced. France is no longer merely a secular democracy with a growing Muslim population. It is the leading Islamic country in Europe. Over 10% of its population is now Muslim, and rising. In terms of active religious practice, Islam is already the dominant faith.

There is no pretending anymore. There is no coming back. France’s future will be Islamic, unless the French people reclaim it now.

As Ayari wrote: “To love France is not to stay silent. It is to defend its values, its secularism, and its balance — and to say stop to those who test the patience of a people that has already endured too much.”

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