France: 3 mosques vandalized, Muslim group urges politicians to speak out

France: 3 mosques vandalized, Muslim group urges politicians to speak out

Via AP:

A leading French Muslim group says three mosques have been vandalized over the past week and is urging authorities to punish the perpetrators.

The French Council of the Muslim Faith, or CFCM, said racist insults and Nazi slogans were scrawled on a mosque in the southeastern town of Tarascon and another in the eastern city of Strasbourg on Tuesday and Wednesday. It said the mosque in the southern town of Draguignan was vandalized May 17. 

(source)

READ MORE - France: 3 mosques vandalized, Muslim group urges politicians to speak out

France: Veil ban 'increased hostility towards Muslim women'

France: Veil ban 'increased hostility towards Muslim women'

Via Asian Image:

New research shows that that there is a link between the banning of the veil in France and increased levels of hostility towards veiled Muslim women.

The Research from the Department of Criminology at the University of Leicester suggests that the veil ban stigmatises veiled Muslim women as ‘criminals’ and fosters Muslim ‘otherness’.

Even if not explicitly inciting hate-motivated violence, the law in its application contributes to a climate of intolerance of Islam in the West.  

(source)

READ MORE - France: Veil ban 'increased hostility towards Muslim women'

France: Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, The official "face" of the new French government.

France: Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, The official "face" of the new French government.

Via The Independent:

Thirty years ago, a four-year-old Moroccan girl emigrated to France to join her father. Yesterday, she became the official "face" of the new French government.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, 34, is the youngest member of the cabinet which assembled yesterday under the chairmanship of President François Hollande. She is the Minister for Women's Affairs and will be the official spokeswoman for the government and, therefore, the mouthpiece for "Hollandism".

(...)

A married mother of twins, Ms Vallaud-Belkacem is a "non-practising Muslim". After winning scholarships to elite colleges, she calls herself a "pure product of the [egalitarianism] of the [French] Republic". She insisted yesterday, however, that she wanted to be judged on her abilities, not on her "triple symbolism" as a young female of North African origin.

(source)

READ MORE - France: Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, The official "face" of the new French government.

France: Hollande's Algerian advisers

France: Hollande's Algerian advisers

Via The North Africa Journal:

In Rabat, the Moroccan government showed no significant worries as François Hollande was declared the winner of the Presidential race. However, we picked up some signs of concerns as usually Morocco finds a more open-door policy among France’s right wing leaders and lot less accommodating Socialists.

(...)

Also a point of concern for the Moroccans is the people who surround François Hollande, in particular his high-powered political adviser Faouzi Lamdaoui, a native of the eastern Algerian city of Constantine. Read this associated analysis on the “Rise of North Africans in French Politics.” 

Another person to watch in the Hollande circles is Kader Arif, a Member of the European Parliament for the south-west of France. He is a member of the Holland’s Socialist Party and sits on the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade. A third source of influence is the young Razzy Hammadi who presided over the Movement of Socialist Youth, before becoming a national secretary of the Socialist Party in November 2008.

Former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius is also an “Algerianist” who is likely to direct the new administration in favor of Algeria.

The Moroccans are not left without their strong cards too. In addition to leveraging their friendship with Martine Aubry, the Moroccans will count on a bi-national, French Socialist militant Najat Vallaud-Belkacem to play a counter weight to the Algerianists. 

(source)

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France: 93% of Muslims voted for Hollande

France: 93% of Muslims voted for Hollande

Via La Vie:

According to a poll by OpinionWay and Fiducial for Le Figaro, 93% of Muslims voted for Hollande.  7% voted for Sarkozy.  The poll was conducted May 6th among 1000 voters.

According to the polling agency, there are about 2 million Muslim voters.  59% of Muslims voted for Hollande in the first round.  23% voted for  Jean-Luc Melenchon (Left Front) and 7% voted for François Bayrou (Democratic Movement).  Sarkozy got 4% of the Muslim vote in the first round.

READ MORE - France: 93% of Muslims voted for Hollande

France: Two elderly Muslims attacked on their way to morning prayers

France: Two elderly Muslims attacked on their way to morning prayers

Via France Soir:

Two elderly Muslims were beaten up on their way to the mosque in the northern town of Amiens.

The attack occurred early Saturday morning, when the two victims, ages 70 and 71, were on their way to morning prayers.  They were accosted by two men with short haircuts who said they were part of the extreme right.  The men were admitted to the hospital with injuries to their legs and ribs.

READ MORE - France: Two elderly Muslims attacked on their way to morning prayers

France: Islam in election debate

France: Islam in election debate


Hollande: No special treatment for Muslims

Mr Hollande, meanwhile, took a similar position to Mr Sarkozy when it came to special treatment for France's large Muslim community.

He said he would not allow separate menus in public cafeterias or separate hours in swimming pools for men and women to satisfy Muslims' demands, and also said he would firmly support France's ban on the face-covering Islamic veils.

(source)

Sarkozy: There must be an Islam "of" France and not an Islam "in" France

Sarkozy's first mention of Islam comes during a row over the left's plans to give the right to vote to non-European foreigners in municipal elections

Why do you think that non-Europeans are Muslims? Why do you say that? Why do you say people who aren't European are Muslim? asks Hollande.

Sarkozy says the right to vote for foreigners, doesn't mean Canadians, or Norwegians, but North Africans, sub-Saharan Africans, Algerians...

You're making a link with a religious identity, says Hollande.

Sarkozy warns against tribalism, citing Islam, accuses Hollande of ignoring the "reality" of the high-rise estates. He says there must be an Islam "of" France and not an Islam "in" France. Sarkozy vaunts his own ban on the niqab in France.

(source)

READ MORE - France: Islam in election debate

France: Graves of Muslim soldiers desecrated

France: Graves of Muslim soldiers desecrated

Via AP:

The graves of several Muslim soldiers in a cemetery in southeastern France were desecrated over the weekend, officials said Monday. The French president called the act "a slur" on the country's history.

(source)

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Paris: 100 Muslims protest against religious extremism

Paris: 100 Muslims protest against religious extremism

Via MSN France, translated by Elder of Zion:

A hundred Muslims gathered Sunday afternoon on the steps of the Opera Bastille in Paris to "say no to religious radicalism" and proclaimed their attachment to France and the values ​​of the Republic, says an AFP reporter.

With French flags on their jackets and under a banner saying "Together against fanaticism", demonstrators observed a moment of silence in memory of "Children of Toulouse and Montauban," victims of Mohamed Merah, responsible for seven murders in both cities in March, and who claimed, according to the Interior Minister, Claude Gueant,to have links with Al Qaeda.

(source)

READ MORE - Paris: 100 Muslims protest against religious extremism

France: 'I’m Arab, a Muslim, and I vote Marine Le Pen'

France: 'I’m Arab, a Muslim, and I vote Marine Le Pen'


Via France24:

If French Muslims are largely left-leaning in their voting preferences, there are exceptions. France24.com spoke to three French Muslims of Arab descent, all of whom vote for the far-right National Front party. Here are their testimonies.

Karima, policewoman: “Many of my colleagues of Arab descent vote far right, but don’t dare say so.”

A 33-year-old naturalised French citizen of Moroccan origin, Karima is a mother of three, married to a Frenchman. She arrived in France 15 years ago, and has a diploma in Computer Science from a French university. Now she works as a policewoman in Paris and declined to provide her last name.

Karima says she started becoming interested in the ideas of Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the extreme-right National Front party, in 2002. That was almost a decade before Le Pen handed over the party leadership to his youngest daughter, Marine, in 2011. These days, Karima says she regularly attends party meetings and votes for National Front candidates whenever she can.

“My vote is an expression of my rejection of certain Muslim Arabs [in France], whom I personally consider ‘thugs’. They’ve destroyed French society. At least in the old days, they lived in the same suburbs,” said Karima, referring to the largely immigrant, impoverished “banlieues” of major French metropolises. “But for the last several years, the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, has done everything in his power to house them in nice neighbourhoods – like the 15th district, where I live.”

(source)

READ MORE - France: 'I’m Arab, a Muslim, and I vote Marine Le Pen'

France: As Le Pen surges, angst deepens in suburbs

France: As Le Pen surges, angst deepens in suburbs

Interestingly enough, Reuters points out: "Of all the young people interviewed for this report, only one said he had voted in Sunday's election."

Via Reuters:

Jean-Pierre, 45, the French son of an Algerian soldier who fought on the French side during the Algerian war of independence, said Le Pen was right to demand tighter border controls because there were no jobs to give to new immigrants.

But Jean-Pierre and others in Aulnay said the bottom line about Le Pen was that she was fanning racism against foreign-looking people, especially French citizens of North African origin, by describing France's 5-million-strong Muslim population as problematic.

"I am a Muslim, and I'm French, and I cannot accept someone telling me that this or that custom is not acceptable," said Jean-Pierre, who owns a car-cleaning business, and said he voted for Sarkozy. "Does she forget that France was in Algeria for 132 years?"

Samir, a 29-year-old panel beater of Moroccan origin who said he had been laid off at the Peugeot plant, said Le Pen's anti-immigrant stance was hypocritical.

"Our parents came here on big boats during the 1960s to build France," he said. "How about thanks?"

(source)

READ MORE - France: As Le Pen surges, angst deepens in suburbs

France: Mosques accused of backing Hollande

France: Mosques accused of backing Hollande

Via the Local:

The rightwing UMP party has accused Socialists of courting the Muslim vote and alleges that mosques are calling for the faithful to vote for leftwing candidate Francois Hollande.

"I want to condemn the conniving and irresponsible attitude of the Socialist Party and its candidate after religious leaders belonging to a network of 700 mosques called on followers to vote for Francois Hollande," writes UMP lawmaker Eric Ciotti in a press release on Wednesday.

(...)

Muslim religious authorities in France however deny they have called on voters to support Hollande. In an interview with the newswire AFP, Abdallah Zekri, a leader of the French Council of Muslim Faith, says imams have called on followers to vote but have not given them instructions as to who they should vote for.

(source)

READ MORE - France: Mosques accused of backing Hollande

France: Paris seeks to become Islamic finance hub in Europe

France: Paris seeks to become Islamic finance hub in Europe


Via Zawya:

A report prepared by KFH-Research stated that new global markets are seeking to join the main players in the Islamic financing industry and services, such as France. France is working relentlessly to make numerous legal and organizational reformations to facilitate the offering of Islamic financial services and products.

The report added that there is great potential for growth in the field of Islamic financial services in France, since France seeks to become a hub for Islamic banking in Europe. It noted that 1.5 million clients are willing to use Islamic banking tools and products, which equals USD 18.2 billion. In addition, French authorities have offered strong support to develop Islamic banking services, not to mention the high number of Muslims living there who seek Islamic banking services. However, the report mentioned that some legislations need to be amended.

(source)

READ MORE - France: Paris seeks to become Islamic finance hub in Europe

France: Muslims 'likely to vote for far left'

France: Muslims 'likely to vote for far left'

Via Al-Jazeera:

Al Jazeera's Yasmine Ryan spoke with M'hammed Henniche, head of the Union of Muslim Associations of Seine-Saint-Denis (UAM 93) [Fr], about how all the negative attention had affected Muslim voters in the run up to the first round of voting - to be held on Sunday, April 22.

(...)

YR: During her campaign, Marine Le Pen, the far-right National Front candidate, has used the term "Islamoleftism". Do you think the feeling that, as you say, so many Muslims seem likely to vote for the left lends some truth to her generalisation?

MH: The left, especially the Communists and the Greens, and to an extent, the Socialists, have understood that there are votes to be won amongst Muslims. During [former UMP President] Jacques Chirac's era, there was a sizable percentage, as high as 20 per cent [of French Muslims], who voted for the right.

With Sarkozy, especially as he has moved further to the right, many of these voters have abandoned the UMP. The left has won a lot of support [from Muslim voters] for its stance on Palestine. Melenchon and Joly have courted this vote and could be described as Islamophiles.

It's true what Marine Le Pen is saying, that there is an alliance between Muslims and the left. But this alliance has been created by the right, who have pushed Muslims to the left.

(source)

READ MORE - France: Muslims 'likely to vote for far left'

France: ‘Fed up’ Muslims mobilize to unseat Sarkozy

France: ‘Fed up’ Muslims mobilize to unseat Sarkozy

Via the Washington Times:

France’s Muslim community is mobilizing voters to reject President Nicolas Sarkozy in Sunday’s election to punish the conservative leader for his anti-immigrant and anti-Islam rhetoric.

“[French] Muslims can’t stand it anymore. They are fed up with these debates about national identity, halal meat, the veil or fundamentalism all over the place,” said Francoise Lorcerie, a sociologist with the Institute of Studies on the Arab and Muslim World near Marseille.

“The terms [Islam, immigration and fundamentalism] are being used interchangeably, without care, with people being targeted, denigrated and used for [votes].”

(source)

READ MORE - France: ‘Fed up’ Muslims mobilize to unseat Sarkozy

Abdennour Bidar: Mohammed Merah, a monster created by Islam’s illness

Abdennour Bidar: Mohammed Merah, a monster created by Islam’s illness

Via AsiaNews:

A great French Muslim philosopher asks whether salafist violence - like that which killed the children of Jewish school in Toulouse – is not a symptom of something deeply wrong with the Muslim tradition. A religion that has closed in on itself. To renew Islam today, the challenge of modernity and humanism must be accepted. "Who will have that courage? Who will take this risk?". The analysis of Fr. Samir Khalil.

(source)

READ MORE - Abdennour Bidar: Mohammed Merah, a monster created by Islam’s illness

Paris: "I am Mohamed Merah and I am going to kill you"

Paris: "I am Mohamed Merah and I am going to kill you"

RFI reports as follows:

Police in Paris on Friday arrested a man who took out a pistol and threatened commuters on one of the capital’s busiest Metro lines, ligne 13. The 30-year-old unidentified man of Moroccan origin, was detained by police mid-morning between Metro stations Saint-Denis Basilique and Université.

According to an official source, he pulled out a Colt 45 and began to threaten a passenger saying “I am Mohamed Merah and I am going to kill you “ in reference to the young Islamist killed by police in Toulouse three weeks ago after the murder of seven people.

Le Parisien, however, reported that the man shouted "We're not all Mohamed Merah! You're being manipulated!".

No idea how one squares with the other, though it seems most French news reports agree with RFI and say the man was an admirer of the Toulouse terrorist.

While trying to find out more, I ran across two additional Merah stories:

1. Sunday morning (April 8), police responded to a man who barricaded himself in his apartment and threatened to kill off policemen like Merah did. The man was finally apprehended, and turned out to be unarmed.

2. A 22 year old was arrested Wednesday April 11 for painting 'I love Mohamed Merah" on a railway station. In a raid on his home police discovered cans of spray paint, as well as a rifle and cartridges and 70 grams of cannabis. The man admitted to painting the slogan, and said he had been under the influence of drugs.

READ MORE - Paris: "I am Mohamed Merah and I am going to kill you"

Morocco: Preacher calls Muslims to leave France

Morocco: Preacher calls Muslims to leave France

Via Telegraaf:

Omar al-Haddouchi, ideological leader of the Jihadist movement in Morocco, published a fatwa saying all Muslims should leave France for North Africa.

Al-Haddouchi says Muslims have no reason to stay in France, listing as reasons the burqa ban, the limits on the call to Friday prayers, and the stricter controls on Muslim radicals following the terror attack in Toulouse. He said non-Muslim countries where like a toilet, where you do your thing and then leave.

His 14-minute long video fatwa is currently circulating on Jihadi websites. Al-Haddouchi was sentenced to 30 years for his links to the attack in Casablanca, May 2003, but was pardoned last year by King Mohammed VI.

READ MORE - Morocco: Preacher calls Muslims to leave France

France: Cabinet OKs new anti-terrorism measures

France: Cabinet OKs new anti-terrorism measures

via AP:

France's conservative government unveiled new counterterrorism measures on Wednesday to punish those who visit extremist websites or travel to weapons-training camps abroad, in the wake of killings by an suspected Islamic extremist in southern France last month.

The measures now go to Parliament, where they may face resistance from the Socialists, who say France's legal arsenal against terrorism is already strong enough and that the proposal is a campaign ploy to boost President Nicolas Sarkozy's chances at a second term.

(source)

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Paris: Arab nudes defy taboos in new exhibit

Paris: Arab nudes defy taboos in new exhibit



Via AFP:

The naked body in Arab art is the theme of a new Paris exhibit meant to broaden views of Arab culture, spotlighting the many artists willing to break taboos and depict nudity in all its forms.

"The Body Uncovered" at Paris' Arab World Institute aims to "challenge the stereotypes usually associated with the Arab world that reduce it to the single image of religious fanaticism," said the institute's chairman Renaud Muselier.

(source)

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