CAGE pushes back against French government’s accusations

LONDON (AA) – CAGE, a Muslim advocacy group, pushed back against French authorities after they accused the group of extremism.

"Not sure why the French Govt has been rattled by Cage holding a mirror to their face. 42% of their electorate have just voted for an outright fascist," CAGE said via their Twitter account.

"You'd think a responsible leadership would have worked out its priorities," the group added.

CAGE describes itself as an independent advocacy organization working to empower communities impacted by the War on Terror.

The group were responding to a statement by France's SG-CIPDR agency, which is the General Secretariat of the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization.

SG-CIPDR labelled CAGE a "network of Islamist militants" in a Twitter thread, accusing them of spreading fake news and lies for several months in a misleading smear campaign against France.

The French agency accused CAGE of slandering the murdered French high school teacher Samuel Paty, who SG-CIPDR said was "wrongfully accused of "islamophobia" by Islamist militants".

"CAGE largely shares the ideology and views of those who participated in, encouraged, and carried out the assassination of Samuel Paty," SG-CIPDR tweeted.

The French agency described the UK group as "cheerleaders for various Islamist and activist circles".

"Founded in 2003, the structure is led by Moazzam Begg, a former jihadist who joined training camps in Afghanistan," SG-CIPDR said. "Extremism is a requirement at CAGE. For example, its research director claimed that all Muslims must support armed jihad, and among CAGE's proteges was Anwar al-Awlaki, a jihadi ideologue, Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen top official, who called for attacks against Western democracies."

SG-CIPDR condemned CAGE for lending its support to Mohammed Emwazih, also known as Jihadi John, adding that this exposed CAGE's sympathy for "certain aspects of the jihadi agenda, a common hatred of democracy that lies behind their so-called campaign & the same tendency to support and reproduce fake news about European democracies, in this case, France."