Category Archives: France

French MEPs criticise government’s silence over mosque desecration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

French members of the European Parliament from the Alliances des Outre-Mers and Front de Gauche have issued a joint statement criticising leading figures the government for failing to condemn the desecration of a mosque in the French overseas territory of Mayotte, allegedly by soldiers in the French army.

Against a background of official denunciations of the antisemitism of Franco-Cameroonian comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, the MEPs’ statement warns the government against applying double standards when it comes to taking a stand against racial and religious hatred.

Fine and suspended prison sentence for Cassandra Belin

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Philippe Bataille at press conferenceA French court has convicted a woman for insulting police who ticketed her for wearing a face-covering Muslim veil, banned by French law. The confrontation between Cassandra Belin, her husband and police triggered riots in the Paris suburb of Trappes last year.

Her lawyer, Philippe Bataille, says Belin was fined 150 euros and given a one-month suspended sentence Wednesday. The lawyer also argued that the veil law is unconstitutional, and asked for it to be sent to the Constitutional Court. The lower Paris court Wednesday threw out that request.

Police sporadically ticket women who wear the veil, banned since 2011. The riots in Trappes reflected tensions between police upholding France’s strict policies of secularism and those who accuse authorities of discriminating against France’s No. 2 religion.

Associated Press, 8 January 2014

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Demonstration against desecration of mosque in Mayotte

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mayotte protest against mosque desecration

Le Figaro reported that on 1 January worshippers at a mosque in Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeast Africa, found that a pig’s head had been left outside the building the previous night. Mayotte 1ière adds that a large demonstration was held to protest at the desecration of the mosque.

Update:  Three people will appear in court on 26 February charged with incitement to religious hatred. Two of them are reportedly members of the French army and a third is the wife of one of the accused. They have admitted the offence and claim that they only did it for a bet while drunk on New Year’s Eve.

Vendôme: Turkish community targeted with racist and fascist graffiti

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CROIX GAMMEE arrière EPICERIE ex charcuterie des RottesDes Dômes Et Des Minarets reports that on Sunday night a number of Muslim-owned buildings in the town of Vendôme, in the Loir-et-Cher department in central France, suffered graffiti attacks.

Swastikas and racist slogans (such as “I love Whites”) were sprayed in black paint on the walls of a mosque and Turkish restaurants and cafes. Around a dozen examples were found, all in the same paint and handwriting.

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Muslim association in Le Barp suffers second firebomb attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Le Barp anti-racist demonstrationSud Ouest reports that on Sunday night a the premises of the Muslim association in Le Barp in Val de l’Eyre in south-west France suffered a Molotov cocktail attack, just a year since a similar arson attempt.

The building has also experienced repeated racist graffiti attacks, in August and September 2012 and in April this year.

(Picture: Demonstration in support of Le Barp’s Muslim community following graffiti attack in August 2012)

France to maintain a headscarf ban despite legal advice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

France decided on Monday to maintain a ban on Muslim headscarves for volunteer school monitors despite a warning that it overstepped the law requiring religious neutrality in the public service.

The Council of State, which advises the government on disputed administrative issues, said in a 32-page analysis that this neutrality did not apply to mothers who help escort schoolchildren on outings such as museum visits. Education Minister Vincent Peillon promptly announced the ban would continue because the Council’s opinion also said that schools could impose internal rules against religious wear. “The memo (establishing the ban) remains valid,” he said in a communique after the Council’s analysis was released.

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France urged to scrap hijab ban for school trips

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The French government was urged on Monday to overturn a ban on Muslim mothers wearing the Islamic veil [hijab] while helping teachers on school trips. The move comes amid criticism of France’s strict application of its secular principles.

France’s Conseil d’Etat (Council of State) told the government to overturn France’s de facto prohibition on Muslim mothers’ wearing the Islamic veil while accompanying pupils and teachers on school trips. The Council, which acts as an advisory body to the government, ruled that mothers simply offering teachers additional adult supervision on school outings should not be “not submitted to [the requirements of] religious neutrality.”

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Pig’s head and ears left at Besançon mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

AFP reports that last Sunday morning a pig’s head and several pig’s ears were found outside the Souna Mosque in Besançon, which had previously been the target of Islamophobic acts.

Only last month a swastika and the slogan “Long live the FN” (Front National) were painted on the wall. The mosque had suffered an earlier graffiti attack in August when an SS sign, a Celtic cross, an Odal rune and the words “Vive la France” were sprayed on the building. In February, Star of David graffiti was daubed on the mosque.

Police patrols have been stepped up around the premises.

France should allow headscarves, Arabic in schools: report to PM

Posted on by Bob Pitt

France should reverse decades of strict secularism to integrate its immigrant population better, allowing Muslims to wear headscarves in schools and promoting Arabic teaching, according to an iconoclastic report commissioned by the prime minister.

The document, part of a government review of integration policy, sparked an outcry among conservative opposition politicians and unease among the governing Socialists.

It said France, with Europe’s largest Muslim population, should recognize the “Arab-oriental dimension” of its identity, for example by changing street and place names, rewriting its history curriculum and creating a special day to honor the contribution of immigrant cultures.

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Paris: Far-right demonstrators defend ‘secularism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Résistance républicaine demonstration December 2013

Last weekend the French “secularist” organisation Résistance Républicaine organised an anti-Islam demonstration in Paris.

It was held under what some might consider the rather contradictory slogan of “pour la laïcité et la sauvegarde des fêtes chrétiennes” (for secularism and safeguarding Christian holidays). The role of secularists, according to Résistance Républicaine and its co-thinkers, is to defend the Christian culture of France against the onslaught of Islam. The participants chanted “Islamists – racists, fascists and assassins!” and “Fascism shall not pass, Sharia shall not pass”.

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