Fatwas against Rioting

How can one achieve calm in the long-term in the French suburbs with their social problems, economic misery and ethnic discrimination? The French state has decided to call upon the help of Muslim organisations. By Bernard Schmid

On 7 November, the French prime minister, Dominique de Villepin announced that regional governments could impose curfews in areas of the country affected by rioting. It was one of the provisions of an old emergency law dating from 3 April, 1955, which was brought back into force by an extraordinary session of the cabinet.

That law was originally passed during the colonial war in Algeria which began in 1954, and was an attempt to deal with the effects the war had on the French homeland. The law has been out of use since the end of the Algerian War.

Warnings were ignored

The current unrest in French satellite towns is primarily a consequence of a concentration of social and economic problems. The towns are the home of poor and socially excluded groups of people of various origins and religions who have been forced out of the city centres.

But the violence is also an expression of bitterness over the harassment and discrimination experienced by the people in the suburbs at the hands of the police, who live in barracks, separated from the rest of the population. Many of them come from other parts of the country, and regard the people of the suburbs with suspicion.

The human rights organisation Amnesty International warned in a report published in April 2005 that an escalation was likely if police practices continued unchanged.

Immediately after the riots broke out, parts of the tabloid and right-wing press began to fuel public resentment by appealing to prejudices about the role of Islam or by putting about the suspicion that organised Islamists were behind the revolts.

"Intifada in the suburbs"

The tabloid newspaper "France Soir" spoke prematurely of "radical Islamists" who were said to working behind the scenes, organising the street battles with the police in Clichy-sous-Bois, the Paris suburb where the revolt began.

The right-wing business magazine "Valeurs actuelles" took the same line. The magazine, which belongs to the arms manufacturer Serge Dassault, spoke of an "intifada in the suburbs," and claimed that the French satellite cities were strongly influenced by Islamist extremism.

But quite a number of fast-track criminal prosecutions have already been started against those allegedly involved in the unrest, and analysis of the documentation of police interrogations and court proceedings reveals an entirely different picture.

Bobigny is the main city in the suburban département of Seine-Saint-Denis just north of Paris, which has seen much of the violence. The prosecutor there, François Molets, admits, "The young people set fire to their own home areas. Their home addresses and the places where they are arrested are almost always very close together.

There's no organisation behind the unrest. On the contrary: in areas in which Mafia groups or Islamists exercise a certain social control there's virtually no violence. Such groups systematically prevent it." After all, such groups have little interest in attracting the police to their districts.

Muslim organisations call for law and order

At the same time, Muslim organisations — including some with connections to political Islam, such as the UOIF (the Union of Islamic Organisations in France), which has close international contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood — are bringing their influence to bear to ensure that law and order are maintained.

The interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, whose line is generally seen as repressive, has included this factor in his policy for years. This suits the Muslim organisations, including those with conservative and Islamist tendencies.

Their central ideology is that of a "moralisation" of society, if necessary using authoritarian means. That, they believe, is what is needed to create the conditions for an orderly social life, which, they feel, have been lost in recent years.

For the government, these organisations also have the advantage that, unlike citizens' initiatives, women's groups or neighbourhood associations, they don't ask for money for such purposes as the solution of social problems. They merely want the legal space for their missionary activities. Sarkozy can thus present himself as a representative of political "balance," since he offers integration to representatives of migrants' groups, while continuing with his repressive policies. "Tough but fair" is his often repeated slogan.

Tear-gas shell fired by the police into a mosque

In the latest crisis, following the incidents in Clichy-sous-Bois, Sarkozy once again mobilised some of the Muslim organisations, which called for a "return to order." This was made more difficult, however, when, three days after the start of the unrest, on 30 October, a tear-gas shell fired by the police exploded in the middle of a mosque in Clichy.

The mosque was located within a shopping centre, and the congregation fled in panic. Was it a mistake, as the police officer in charge insists, or was it a deliberate act of revenge by the police, as many residents of the area believe?

One way or the other, Muslim communities are having to deal with increasing discontent. Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of the Central Mosque in Paris and the most senior representative of institutionalised Islam in France, is regarded as a moderate, but he too criticised the interior minister, albeit in guarded terms.

The UOIF, usually seen as a part of the right-wing and reactionary wing of institutionalised Islam, turned on him and said that he was "involving himself in politics in an unacceptable fashion." One reason for the dispute may be that Boubakeur is close to President Chirac, while, over the last few years, the leadership of the UOIF has entered into a strategic alliance with Sarkozy.

On 7 November, the UOIF rewarded Sarkozy for the institutional recognition he has given them by issuing a "fatwa against rioting." It presents religious arguments to explain why "it is strictly forbidden for a faithful Muslim, who seeks fulfilment and the grace of God, to take part in activities which will damage private or public property or put human life at risk."

In Rosny-sous-Bois, one of the Parisian suburbs in the crisis-ridden département of Seine-Saint-Denis, the "Association of Muslims in Rosny," an organisation linked to the UOIF, operates nightly patrols. Members are out on the streets to stop looting and cars from being set alight.

Youssef al-Qardawi commenting from Egypt

The UOIF has even mobilised international support. The influential Egyptian theologian Youssef al-Qardawi, who belongs to the UOIF's Fatwa Council and is close to the Muslim Brotherhood, wrote a piece from Qatar which appeared on the "Islam Online" website. He too presented religious arguments as to why faithful Muslims should not take part in revolts and riots.

But the position of the UOIF has been subjected to harsh criticism on the internet site Oumma.com. The site is run by reformist Muslim intellectuals with a few French colleagues. The group got together during the debate on the ban on the headscarf in French schools two years ago.

The site attacks the UOIF as "Sarkozy's sheriffs." It criticises the UOIF for making the riots into a "communal issue," as if only Muslims were taking part in the rioting, and as if the young people can be reached by arguments based on the idea that "You are bad Muslims." Oumma.com says the social problems should not be seen as a communal or a religious issue, but as a problem for the whole of society.

Bernhard Schmid

Translated from the German by Michael Lawton

Qantara.de

Migrants in France
Study Does Not Confirm Notion of a Growing Re-Islamization
The Center for the Study of French Life has conducted a soon-to-be-published survey on the political behavior and the social values of French people with a migrant background. Bernard Schmid had already had a look at it

Azouz Begag
From the Banlieue to a Place in the Cabinet
Azouz Begag was born in an immigrant shantytown on the outskirts of Lyon. He later became a novelist and social scientist. To his own surprise he was now appointed France's new Minister for the Promotion of Equal Opportunity. Bernard Schmid reports

France
University Courses for Muslim Prayer Leaders
France is to lay on university courses for Muslim prayer leaders to teach them about the French way of life. The move announced by the country's Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin is aimed at better integrating France's imams, many of whom don't speak French. By Alasdair Sandford

Muslims in France
Fighting Symptoms Instead of Finding Real Solutions
It's with a mixture of indifference and helplessness that the non-Muslim majority approaches the problems of the marginalised young Muslims in the suburbs or the public presence of orthodox Islam in society, writes Jürgen Ritte