Bruno Retailleau, France’s former interior minister, has with his Senate group just published the toughest report on Islamism in a generation. They warn that Islamist networks have taken hold of entire swathes of French public life – from schools and sports clubs to student housing, neighbourhoods and councils. In the report, 29 Republican senators set out what they describe as a coordinated effort by Islamist networks to impose parallel norms and bypass republican authority. They argue that only urgent, hard-hitting measures can halt the advance and are calling for banning the hijab for girls under 16, prohibiting fasting for minors, enforcing strict neutrality in sport and local government, cutting foreign funding to mosques and associations, and giving the state far broader powers to tr

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