Bin Laden's Backfire

In taking up the cause of French Muslims, al Qaeda is only bringing the government and the Islamic community closer together.   

BY JONATHAN LAURENCE, JUSTIN VAÏSSE | NOVEMBER 1, 2010

Consider what happened six years ago when France adopted a law banning the wearing of headscarves by girls in public school classrooms. Many Muslims found the urgency and vehemence of that debate to be disproportionate to the actual number of girls who wore a foulard to school (estimated to be around 1,250 when the law was passed). At the time, 71 percent of French Muslims thought there was "too much" discussion about the headscarf issue.

Three months later, two French journalists were taken hostage in Iraq, and their kidnappers demanded the immediate repeal of the ban in return for their freedom. Yet this only served to unify a country that had otherwise been divided over the politics of the veil debate: Even opponents of the ban who had organized demonstrations led unanimous calls for all schoolgirls to respect the new law. Muslim leaders almost universally denounced the foreign interference in their internal affairs. When one high school student remarked, "There will be no blood on my headscarf," the phrase became a rallying cry for French Muslims, appalled by the violence being perpetrated on their behalf. 

Of course, there is little chance that burqa wearers will suddenly welcome the law (which enters into force on April 11, 2011) banning the religious garments from the public space. Still, bin Laden's message has offered a welcome opportunity to clarify once again where French Muslims stand when extremists attempt to hijack French domestic political issues to further their own agenda.

Here again, Muslim leaders have reaffirmed their loyalty to the French Republic and demonstrated their solidarity with overall public opinion by issuing denunciations of bin Laden's statement. The French Council for Muslim Faith (CFCM) issued a statement saying, "these questions are an internal affair for France" and "in the name of Islamic values… the CFCM totally condemns any act of hostility targeting our nation or our compatriots, no matter its source." Even the Union of Islamic Organizations in France, which has traditionally promoted a more assertive and politicized Islam in France, was similarly unequivocal: "Any attack on French security is a direct attack on its Muslims."

Could it be that bin Laden has succeeded in renewing the bond between French Muslims and the state after two bitter years of division and recriminations over national identity and burqas? French Muslims' ready denunciation of terrorism is further evidence that they are at home in French society, but it is also a depressing reminder of the misgivings that they face. The specter of al Qaeda has cut two ways for French Muslims since 2001 -- spreading fear of Islam but also providing the opportunity for better integration.

By all appearances, it seems that bin Laden's latest communiqué may have the effect of actually repairing the relationship between the French Muslim community and the wider electorate -- and uniting them in a common cause: the battle over retirement benefits and budget cuts.

PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP/Getty Images

 SUBJECTS: AL QAEDA, TERRORISM, FRANCE
 

Jonathan Laurence is associate professor of political science at Boston College. Justin Vaïsse is senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.They are the co-authors of Integrating Islam: Political and Religious Challenges in Contemporary France.

EIGHTHGEAR

6:31 PM ET

November 1, 2010

I hope you are right

I hope you are right that this does help unify France and undo all the damage that Sarkozy and his cronies are doing. I'm looking forward to seeing him being booted out of office in favor of the socialists - and I am not even a fan of socialism. Nevertheless, I would vote for any socialist over that demagogic half-wit.

 

VOSTOK19

5:44 PM ET

November 2, 2010

BS

Where have you seen that integration is taking place ?
Have you ever travelled to France ? Lived in France ?
What is really taking place is a march toward the past. Where a muslim majority lives women are harassed by young bullies if they do not comply with machist traditions. Jews are chased. Gays hide.
2000 burqas beares ? Is it a joke ? 25 years ago no one would wear a veil. Now scores of women and girls dress according to Tehran fashion.
Is this what you name integration ? Wait a couple of years and France will be integrated to the muslim world.

Moreover not once did French muslim demonstrate against terrorists who kill in the name of islam. It hasn't happened once.

 

FRENCHCONNECTION

5:37 PM ET

November 3, 2010

Do you live in France ?

obviously not

- out of 4 millions people from some kind of Islamic background, maybe 2000 are wearing a niquab (which is nowadays forbidden). Maybe 90% of muslim women in France don't wear anything on their heads, many of them are old grandmothers.
- gang coercion of young women happens in any place in the world, inclusive the US. It happens in some places, yes, but not where a "majority of muslim lives" as a rule.
- antisemitic acts happens now and then yes, as in any country. Most of them, if not all can be sourced to whites with fascist sympathies. Antisemitism in France is lower than in Spain or even Germany despite the presence of the third largest Jewish community in the world after the US and Israel. The current President is Jewish from his mothers side, his son converted recently, Jews are overrepresented in the intellectual/political sphere.
- gay hide ? do you mean gay pride ? this was the most ridiculous statement of your inane post. The Mayor of Paris is openly gay.

what you report are exceptions, the few, the hundred of cases/year in the life of 68 millions dwellers. Of course they make headlines.

what you write is not only blatant lies but hatemongering. Please whatever you do, stay where you are, don't come here, take your meds and try to cope living with your hate-filled fantasy world.

 

EURO2

7:38 PM ET

November 2, 2010

Islam in Europe

The article is a bit like a bedtime story!!

The problem with 'in France', and in Europe Islam is the 'promotion of a more assertive and politicized Islam'.

If you don't get this finer point ~ you totally miss the argument in Europe.

I think it is clear, that in the US everyone is reading everyone else's news, and he believes it because he said it and this continues, what develops is not new news, or further examination of the issue ~ is a position.

And from this position, articles are based, and it becomes a little fantasy-like.

For example, 'French Muslims' ready denunciation of terrorism is further evidence that they are at home in French society.'

In discussions about Islam in Europe, terrorism is very often not the main focus.

[I do respect that America was attacked]

And isn't the French Council for Muslim Faith (CFCM), closely associated with the government and more official mosques?

One of the reasons for the headscarf ban in French schools, was to further establish the separation of religion and state. And was part of the bigger issue of Muslim demands on the secular state. And these are some of the problems they are still dealing with. Muslim parents did not want their girls to do biology or fitness/gym and were requesting that their daughters not be taught by male teachers.

But kids of different religions, were siding with each other according to religious dress, as in gangs or bullying.

The ban was a way to say we are a secular state, and push this assertive Islam back.

Further, when there are articles on Islam in Europe, Islam is viewed in isolation and of course Europe is coming against this Islam. But those who call themselves Islamic in Europe are probably 95% [or more] from the Islamic world, where on the whole freedom is not respected.

And these ideas are not supported by so called 'bad people' ~ like the US discussion of Muslims around terrorism ~ these are fundamental beliefs in the way, not one should conduct their personal life [we'd be lucky], but the way governments should be run and also most troubling, which laws should govern the people.

Much of this doesn't make the international news, but each time it happens, it adds to the feeling, that Muslims are not in Europe to be a part of it, but to attempt to bring it under the control of Islam.

Like when top Islamic cleric say, amputations [for youth crime] should be introduced - this from Malta, Switzerland to the UK.
Or when the Muslim council of Britain says, [to the effect] one day the British people will love Shari'a law, and they should really think trying arranged marriages.

==

Here are a few articles from below the international news threshold.

===

Article: NIS: ‘Apartheid at Islamic Schools’
http://europenews.dk/en/node/25485

AMSTERDAM, 18/08/09 — Orthodox Islamic schools treat Dutch teachers who are not Muslims as inferior beings. They have to have their meals separately and cannot be greeted in the same way as Muslims, says a former teacher at the As Siddieq school in Amsterdam.

Hennie Metsemakers was suspended by the school a year and a half ago because she spoke of religions other than Islam in the lessons. “I had drawn a timeline and shown the most important events of a number of beliefs on it.” Not only was that forbidden, but she was also ordered to teach the children that Christianity would be abolished, she told Het Parool newspaper.

A few years ago, a number of teachers had already left the As Siddieq school due to the extremely orthodox attitude of its management. According to Metsemakers, the board has meanwhile succeeded in imposing the orthodox signature on all staff members, even though half the team consists of non-Muslim teachers.

Non-Muslim teachers at As Siddieqschool and other schools are treated kindly, but not as full-value colleagues. Metsemakers had gone to work at the school full of integration ideals. “The leadership was attentive and nice, but turned out to have a hidden agenda. In the breaks, we had to eat separately. We were not allowed to be greeted in the same way as Muslim teachers, not with the word salaam, peace, because non-Muslims cannot know what peace is.”

According to Metsemakers, the school wants to teach children that they are not allowed to be friends with non-believers. “Only Muslims can after all be good people.”

Metsemakers has meanwhile warned the Education Inspectorate about the school. The As Siddieq is subsidised by the Dutch government.

Hennie Metsemakers was suspended by the school a year and a half ago because she spoke of religions other than Islam in the lessons. “I had drawn a timeline and shown the most important events of a number of beliefs on it.” Not only was that forbidden, but she was also ordered to teach the children that Christianity would be abolished, she told Het Parool newspaper.

===

Article on the Belgium headscarf ban
http://www.nrc.nl/international/Features/article2370136.ece/Headscarf_ban_a_slap_in_the_face_for_Flemish_Muslims

The headscarf controversy was recently brought to the forefront once again after the Royal Atheneum, a school in Antwerp, decided to ban the Islamic headwear. The move was all the more controversial because the Royal Atheneum was one of the last schools in Antwerp not to have a ban.

The school's principal, Karin Heremans, in 2005 co-authored a book by then socialist party president Steve Stevaert, in which she argued against a headscarf ban. Heremans advocated cultural differences are an enrichment, and she wanted to introduce universal values to the mixed bag of children at the school: tolerance, separation between church and state. Not for nothing the Royal Atheneum was founded by Napoleon.

But Heremans' principled stand put the school in a difficult position. As one of the last refuges for headscarf-wearing girls in Antwerp, it became the school of choice for religious Muslims.

80 percent Muslim

"In 2001 46 percents of all pupils was Muslim", Heremans says, "in 2008 it was 80 percent." Some girls started showing up in the niqab, a veil that leaves only the eyes visible. The niqabs were banned, but the discussion didn't end there.

"The debate was no longer about to ban or not to ban the headscarf. It was about how long the headscarf should be. Girls who chose not to wear it were put under pressure. An ex-pupil slipped into the school to take down the names of the girls who took off their headscarves once they were inside. After a few years of this I thought: in a little while we will be a Muslim school. Then what will be left of our project?"

====

Another example of what people call Islamization or as you call it ~ assertive Islam. The fact that officials used to give in to these demands, is one of the reason we have the backlash and outspokenness against Islam in Europe. And more the reason for the shift to the right.

http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/5544039/__Boerkina_s_willen_alleen_in_zwembad__.html?p=21,2

AMSTERDAM -- Women in burkini demands the departure of men from the Amsterdam Zuiderbad.

A group of Muslim women demanding that men banned from the pool if they have to swim. The staff of the pool was there do not agree.

A burkini covers the body almost entirely. But the Muslim women feel uncomfortable in the pool as the men present [can see] their feet and hands. Egbert de Vries urban district of Oud-Zuid calls it nonsense to all men for that reason to exclude from the Zuiderbad. De Vries:

"But if it was limited to one or two hours per week for women, can I have something to propose. There is such a naked swim hour a week. And I think that only men."

It has been a weekly hour Zuiderbad leszwemmen for women and special one hour mix of women and men of 18 + 55 +.

VVD MP Paul de Krom calls it "totally bizarre". "This is the inverted world", says De Krom. "If they want to swim in boerkini and then also demand that all men leave, they do but in Casablanca."

 

FRENCHCONNECTION

6:34 PM ET

November 3, 2010

yada, yada, yada

same as Vostok above, with at least some sources

1) yes, there has been an increase of religious communautarism in Europe (and France) the last twenty years, this for two reasons : increase of immigration and increased influence of fundamental Islamism. Which means that some minority groups became very visible.

2) The quota between these groups and the "silent majority" of people with roots in the Arab world, Islamic Africa, Iranians and Turks hasn't fundamentally changed. Recent surveys in France show that out of people with this roots 40% are atheists or agnostics (which probably overrides to the numbers (2 millions) of white agnostics in New England) and in the remaining 60% only 10% practice the "5 pillars of Islam", probably the kind of guys that would visit Rauf's Mosque. Most of the French Muslims (50%) who call themselves "Muslims" have never been to a Mosque, never read the Coran, drink alcohol but avoid pork, and might call for a local Imam for a marriage (with no legal value) or a burial. In Germany where Turks are in majority, secularism is a tradition they took from home.

3) the amount of Islamic religiously extremist people in Europe is probably far lower than the amount of - by European standards - Christian extremists in the USA. In France maybe out of 4 millions, 100 000 would be considered as "bigoted" by Enlightment standards, which doesn't mean that they break the law or blow up bombs. About 1000 are considered as a potential "problem" and 300 of them are currently sitting in jail. The violences perpetrated in some suburbs by some youth is nothing but ethnic gang criminality, but not religiously motivated. But I guess that by the way some reason here, the violence committed by Latino gangs in the US could be presented as a "Catholic menace".

4) all this is of course exploited by xenophobic and populist politicians in France and other European countries. It's good marketing. But US pundits who don't speak another language than English, many of them who never have been to France or Europe (and thus don't follow the local debate) or if they did had a 3 days tourist trip, don't bother to check facts but keep propagating about the European "Islamic invasion". Some alarmist articles from some European papers are sources good enough. Of course it sells more than to talk about the overwhelming poverty and lack of integration of Blacks (after 400 years) in the USA and of Latinos. Integration problems have always existed, they last 1-2 generations and the US has completely forgotten about the gang wars between the Irish, Italians and Jews a century ago. Not to talk about natives who weren't even US citizens before 1930. Or did I mention the quasi apartheid regime that reigned in the US until the late sixties since the abolition of slavery?

The authors of the original post have the merit of showing what is really going on in France. It's only sad that it took to an explicit threat from Ben Laden to explain that the vast majority (90% and probably more) of immigrants fom a Muslim background in France have core values that are diametrically opposed to the ones of some bearded woman abusers.

 

MASINI

9:59 AM ET

November 13, 2010

tinctura propolis This

tinctura propolis
This offender has probably advanced psychological studies. Knows how to manipulate the masses more than our authorities. We should deal with people and explain what lies behind their sick minds. Maybe they're right and they, the Muslims, but the French are not enemies. They are friends, and that all Muslims must understand all.laptisor de matca de vanzare and vand polen albine

 

ACKERLEY111

11:09 AM ET

November 15, 2010

Here are a few articles from below

The violences tatil perpetrated in some suburbs by some youth is nothing but ethnic gang filmcin criminality, but not religiously motivated. But I guess that by the way some gazeteler reason here, the violence committed by Latino gangs in the klip izle US could be presented as a "Catholic menace".