France - French teenager’s anti-Islam rant reopens free speech debate

Published on February 5th, in RFI

Events surrounding the 16-year-old known to the French public after her Instagram name Mila began on 18 January, when the teenager launched a live video on the network to show her followers her newly dyed purple hair.

Following tense exchanges with followers during the live, Mila posted a video using the network’s Story function in which she said, among other things, “I detest religion, the Quran is a religion [sic] of hate, there is only hatred in it. Islam is shit, your religion is shit.”

The video was widely shared on social media, eliciting threats of death and rape. School officials advised Mila to stay at home for her safety and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said Tuesday the girl and her family were placed under police protection in the days following the publication of the video.

Freedom of expression versus hate speech

The video and the threats that followed also stirred the mix of support and derision that often arises from debates over freedom of expression, blasphemy, religion and hate speech in France.

Messages on social media included hashtages #JeSuisMila and #JeNeSuisPasMila (“I am Mila” and “I am not Mila” respectively), an echo to the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag that emerged after jihadist gunmen attacked satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for mocking Islam in 2015.

Prosecutors opened investigations into the threats and, more controversially, into Mila herself for “provocation to racial hatred”.

The case was soon closed, with investigators saying they found no elements corresponding to France’s laws prohibiting incitement to hatred against members of a community.

In closing the case, prosecutors validated the argument of supporters of Mila, who pointed out the teenager was targeting the religion itself, which is legal as France has no laws prohibiting blasphemy, and not targeting Muslims individually.

Political reactions

But the case underscores how explosive such issues can be when it comes to Islam in France.

Matters were not helped when Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said last Wednesday that while death threats were “unacceptable in a democracy”, Mila’s remarks on Islam were “clearly an infringement on freedom of conscience”.

Belloubet later retracted her remarks, saying “obviously I did not intend to question the right to criticise a religion,” but right-wing politicians took the opportunity to argue the government was ignoring the threat facing the girl.

Bruno Retailleau of right-wing party Les Républicains defended Mila against what he called “this political Islam which is trampling our values”, and far-right leader Marine Le Pen tweeted “This young girl is braver than the whole political class in power over the past 30 years.”

Support for Mila was more mitigated on the left on the political spectrum.

Ségolène Royal, former environment minister and presidential candidate for the Socialist Party, defended Mila’s “total” freedom to criticise a religion, but said the teenager should have shown more “respect, manners and knowledge” and should not be made into “a paragon of freedom of expression”.

Mila defends rant in TV interview

Mila told French television programme Quotidien on Monday that while she did not regret her criticism of Islam, she regretted her “vulgarity” and the use of social networks, the impact of which she underestimated.

She explained that among “10 to 30” people watching her livestream was “a guy was hitting on my heavily during the live, telling me ‘you’re beautiful, you’re hot, how old are you?’”.

She said he became aggressive after she responded to a female follower’s questions about her sexual preferences by saying she was lesbian and that “blacks and Arabs” were not her type.

She described stopping the live and, after receiving multiple insulting and threatening messages from “four or five” people, each sending “30 to 100” messages, deciding to create and upload her rant against Islam and religion.

“I do not regret my words in the slightest,” she told the interviewer in regards to her remarks.

“I excuse myself, a little bit, for the people that I could have hurt, who practice their religion in peace,” she added. “I never wanted to target human beings. I only wanted to blaspheme, to talk about a religion and say what I thought.”