France: Racism and fascism (4)
01 January 1991
France: Racism and fascism
artdoc April=1995
France, Muslims and national identity
Pasqua defines limits of `Islam in France'
Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, speaking at the inauguration
of a Grand Mosque in Lyon said that `We now realise that Islam
in France is a French reality and not just a foreign issue or the
extension of foreign problems... So it is not enough to have an
Islam in France. There should also be a French Islam.' Pasqua
defined this as an Islam that respected France's republican and
secular principles, that recognised the rights of men and women,
and did not view France as `a space to conquer'. Pasqua concluded
that `The tree of fundamentalism' should not be allowed to hide
`the forest of moderate, tolerant and discreet Islam' that the
Grand Mosque at Lyon represented.
The French government is promoting of French-born imams to
replace those brought from abroad, and it wants Muslims to form
a national organisation with which the French state can liaise.
Two thirds of the cost of the mosque was financed by the monarch
of Saudi Arabia (Le Monde 1.10.94, International Herald Tribune
1.11.94).
More information on Burkina Faso deportations
Some of the twenty Arab deportees expelled to Burkina Faso (see
bulletin no. 11) say they intend to apply for asylum in another
country, possibly the UK or USA. A number of those expelled have
also consulted lawyers in France and are to bring a law-suit
against the interior minister for defamation. After the
expulsions, Pasqua said: `We cannot wait for those people to
plant bombs before expelling them.' FIS lawyer, Ahmed Simozrag
says that this is a violation of the principle of innocent until
proven guilty. Those deported were taken to a hotel in Burkina
Faso's capital, Onagadoingon, where they were allegedly costing
the interior ministry 90,000 francs a week for their stay.
Mohammed Benkhaled, a 31-year-old chemistry student from the
University of Marseilles who is married to a French woman, had
to be dragged handcuffed onto the plane. He believed that his
arrest had been a mistake and expected his release not his
deportation, describing himself as a `practising but not a
fanatical Muslim' (Le Monde, 4, 5.9.94).
Legal challenge to head scarf ban
Education minister, François Bayrou's ban on the wearing of
Islamic head scarves in schools is likely to be challenged in
France's administrative courts. But while the education minister
told Le Nouvel Observateur that he believes the court will rule
in favour of the ban, he has indicated that if this were not to
prove the case `it would inevitably lead to a legislative move'.
Meanwhile, at least thirty-one girls have been expelled from
schools in four French cities for wearing Islamic head scarves
in class(International Herald Tribune 4.11.94, Guardian
26.11.94).
The anti-racist group SOS Racisme has supported the banning of
the head scarf and called for a new law forbidding all religious
symbols, so as to avoid discrimination - a stance supported by
the main teachers' unions (Jewish Chronicle 25.11.94).
Arabs stereotyped as fundamentalists in the media
Three French youths of Arab origin have started legal proceedings
against France 3 TV channel after it screened a programme, La
Marche du Siècle, which showed a picture of the youths doctored
to make them look like Islamic fundamentalists (Weekly Journal
1.12.94).
An edition of the French liberal weekly, L'Express (17-23.11.94)
is entitled `The Conspiracy: how the Islamicists are infiltrating
us' and bears a picture of a woman wearing the head scarf.
According to L'Express, the head scarf is a potent symbol of the
Islamic conspiracy to infiltrate and agitate in France. Those
women who wear the head scarf are forced to do so by extremists
in the Arab community who are also active in self-help community
organisations seducing young Muslims into Islamification. The
magazine concludes that it is