Do not Put Islamic Spin on French Riots: Ramadan

ISLAMONLINE.NET

Do not Put Islamic Spin on French Riots: Ramadan
Tuesday 8 November 2005

PARIS, November 8, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) -

As French riots continued unabated for the 12th night running, seeing more
cars torched and French authorities threatening curfews, a well-known
Muslim thinker warned against bringing religion into a situation that has
nothing to do with faith and a poll showed two thirds of French people
dissatisfied with their government’s policies on marginalized suburbs.

"Above all, one must not Islamisize the question of the suburbs. The
question that France must answer is absolutely not a question of
religion," Muslim thinker Tariq Ramadan told Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Tuesday, November 8.

Asked by AFP where the roots of the malaise lie, Ramadan said the entire
political class in France has been "blind" to what has been happening in
the suburbs, with their unemployed youth of Arab and African origin and
bleak high-rises.

"There’s an obsession about a religious divide, but no one sees the
socio-economic divide in France, with places in the process of becoming
ghettos with the suburbs on one side, the better-off areas on the other."

"There must be a struggle against this institutionalized racism. There are
second-class citizens in France. That is the reality."

"People (in the suburbs) have the impression that they count for nothing,
that they can be looked down upon and insulted in any way," Ramadan added
to AFP, from his current vantage point at Oxford University.

"We’re in the process of losing a footing in the suburbs. Even so-called
Muslim associations are more and more disconnected. The fracture is
profound... We are seeing an Americanization in terms of violence."

The Swiss thinker - of Egyptian origins — grandson of the founder of the
influential Muslim Brotherhood movement in the 1920s, added there needs
to be a return to order: "Violence is not a solution and sanctions must
be taken against gangs."

But he said that security measures can only be part of a broader policy,
one that addresses the core of social problems.

"We need a modern-day Jaures," he said, referring to Jean Jaures, the
pioneering French socialist politician at the turn of the 20th century.

"It was Jaures who said that the religious question must be filed away so
that one can focus on the social question. The unity of France is a myth
in socio-economic terms, and the question of faith is not the problem."

It would also help to keep a lid on "counterproductive" speech, said
Ramadan, who recalled Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy’s description of
the rioters as "scum".

"It’s not by insulting one part of France that you can protect the
other."Unemployment

Meanwhile, more than 70 percent of French people feel that the
government’s policies towards the poor city suburbs where rioting has
spread for the past 12 days are misguided, according to a poll.

Asked about the government’s approach to the general "situation in the
suburbs" — without specific reference to the recent unrest — 71 percent
felt it was "going in the wrong direction".

Only 20 percent of respondents approved of the government’s policies,
according to the monthly survey conducted jointly for Yahoo, the
Liberation newspaper and iTele news channel.

Concerning unemployment — seen as a key factor behind the riots — the
survey revealed that 58 percent of people were unhappy with current
policies, while 33 approved, according to AFP.

On the fight against crime and insecurity, 59 percent of those who replied
said they were unhappy with the current government policy, against 34
percent who supported it.

The poll of 1,007 people was conducted on November 4-5 as the violence
that erupted northeast of Paris on October 27 started to spread beyond
the capital.

Curfews Threatened

On the ground, more cars were torched overnight into Tuesday but the
situation looked calmer after Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin
announced that regions are to be given powers to impose curfews to curb
riots that have gripped hundreds of towns across France.

Police said Tuesday that 1,173 vehicles were burnt and 330 people arrested
overnight as France experienced its 12th straight night of urban violence.

Twelve police officers were lightly hurt, mainly by thrown projectiles.
Some officers were the target for people firing buckshot, though none was
hit. A dozen buildings were hit by arsonists.

The number of vehicles torched and arrests made were slightly lower than
for the previous night, possibly signaling a tapering off of the unrest
that has raged since October 27.

Overnight Sunday, more than 1,400 automobiles were gutted by flames and
395 people were detained.

The escalating violence claimed its first life on Monday as a 61-year-old
man, who was beaten into a coma last week, died in hospital.

Under pressure to act as the arson and street violence headed into a 12th
night, Villepin, speaking on national television, said regional
authorities would be given the power to impose curfews "where necessary".

A decree was to be adopted at a special cabinet meeting on Tuesday and
curfew measures would be applicable from Wednesday morning, Villepin
said.

President Jacques Chirac was to hold a cabinet meeting Tuesday which was
to give regional authorities the power to impose curfews if necessary to
restore public order.

The prime minister ruled out an army intervention to stop the violence,
which spread to some 300 towns over the weekend, but said that 1,500
police reinforcements would be deployed to restore public order.

And some 200 people held a silent tribute to Jean-Jacques Le Chenadec, who
died in hospital after being assaulted Friday as he was discussing the
riots with a neighbor in Stains, north of Paris.

IslamOnline.net

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