Benzema accused of links to Muslim Brotherhood

A French senator on Wednesday called for Karim Benzema to be stripped of his French citizenship after Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin suggested the football star was linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist party considered to be a terrorist group in several Middle Eastern countries.

The French senator’s reaction came after Darmanin claimed on Tuesday that Benzema had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, in an interview on French conservative TV broadcaster CNews, without providing evidence to back up his assertion.

Benzema's lawyer Hugues Vigier said he would take legal action against Gerald Darmanin on the grounds of “false information and public insults”. Mr Vigier told RMC radio station that Benzema was not linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, and said the allegation was “absolutely false”.

The threat comes after the footballer, who recently moved to Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad, posted a message online saying that he was praying “for the inhabitants of Gaza, once again victims of these unjust bombings that spare neither women nor children”.

He said it was “incredible” that the person who oversees law enforcement could “make this kind of statement without verification”, adding that this was unacceptable. Mr Vigier described Mr Darmanin's remarks as “nonsense” and accused him of political opportunism.

The display of religious signs in the public domain is a sensitive topic in France. Earlier this year, the French football federation (FFF) refused to halt games briefly to allow Muslim players to break their fast, a practice recently implemented in the English and Dutch football leagues, claiming it would violate the principle of secularism.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in the 1920s and has been designated as a terrorist group by several Arab countries.