Soweto

On a chilly June day in 1976, approximately 20,000 students assembled at multiple points in Soweto, one of the many government-created black enclaves in South Africa, where jobs were scarce, hope was little, and poverty and squalor were hideously prevalent. The students intended to march to Orlando West Secondary School, where they would sing “Nkosi Sikeleli ‘iAfrika,” an anthem of hope and resistance, before heading back home.

These high schoolers were glued into the fabric of Apartheid South Africa’s Bantu Education Act. passed in 1953, its author who later became prime minister, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, stated the following: “Natives (blacks) must be taught from an early age that equality with Europeans (whites) is not for them.”

Over the next 23 years, young black South Africans were wedged in the middle of a system that aimed not only to segregate them from the white ruling minority in all spheres of civil life, but also to demoralize them by cutting off the root to a better education.

The average government expenditure on a white child was 15 times that which was spent on a black child.

Swimming in a downward spiral, not sure of the destination, feeling that there would be no culmination of any educational effort, this was the lot of your average black South African student. The situation was to become worse.

The Department of Education issued a decree that Afrikaans was to become the language of instruction at school. Many children spoke the kitchen variety, mainly as a third and sometimes fourth language. Many black teachers could not speak the language but had to teach it as the predominant mode of instruction. The youth identified Afrikaans, unequivocally, as the language of the oppressor. Something had to happen, if their parents weren’t going to rise up, it would have to be them, the young.

So on June 16, these young students marched and sang with a vehemence that shook a nation and unsettled the big and brawny police-contingent that lined up in front of them. The police ordered the teenagers to disperse. They refused. Teargas was fired. The students reached for the only weapons available, stones and bottles. The policemen turned to their guns; mayhem ensued.

A peaceful march had gone awry, and now was spilling over into vociferous rioting. The students began setting fire to government buildings, liquor-stores, buses, vehicles, the police responded with bullets. Scores of youth were killed—13-year old Hector Peterson was one of them.

The rioting mushroomed to other towns and cities throughout South Africa. The black students were joined in their protest by their Indian and colored colleagues. This was 1976. South Africa was on the brink of a political inferno. It was an uprising of the have-nots against the haves.

June 16 in Soweto was not the first time and will not be the last time that young people rise up against a choking hegemony. Since the end of October 2005, the world has seen violent, ultra-emotional rioting in France. Two teenagers were electrocuted after coming into contact with a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois. Those close to the deceased are adamant that the police chased the teenagers to their early death. The police flatly denied the allegation. The trigger was activated.

The run down banlieus of France had erupted, and not without serious venom. Over 5000 cars have been set alight and serious skirmishes and arson attacks have been rife since that fateful day in October. Racially, the banlieus are predominantly an eclectic cocktail of different immigrants. Here you can meet French citizens from Senegal to Morocco, Portugal to Algeria, Martinique to Tunisia, or The Ivory Coast to Togo, to cite a few nations. No doubt, all the collective qualities of these immigrant communities working in tandem would unearth a fruitful community, but when the youth of these immigrant communities are collectively upset, spontaneous combustion seems inevitable. And France is on fire.

The youths complain of harassment and arrest, marginalization and profiling on a daily basis. These youths feel excluded from mainstream French society. The Socialist Worker reports that “quite simply, young people from the poorest areas of France’s cities are fighting back in their tens of thousands against decades of poverty and racism.”

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has fueled enmity from the rioters, referring to them as “scum.” There has also been no official expression of regret for the deaths of the two teenagers.

The governmental response to the uprising has been bemusing at times and ambiguous at best. Senior French conservative politicians were quoted as saying polygamy was a major factor behind the attacks.

Employment Minister Gerard Larcher told RTL Radio, “In order for us to be able to integrate them, there must not be more of them than our capacity to integrate them. That’s the issue. It’s like polygamy … it’s certainly one of the causes (of the riots).”

Perhaps France’s apparent multicultural utopia is façade. Footballer Lilian Thuram has added his voice in support of the protestors. Thuram grew up in the banlieus, and hails from Caribbean stock.

“I grew up in the suburbs and I feel very close to these youths. The situation makes me sick. Nobody is asking the right questions. Nobody is trying to look at the real problems. It’s always the same. It’s always the fault of the youngsters in the suburbs. I don’t believe it’s gratuitous violence.” Thuram continued, “You need to ask why, to stop putting people in boxes in nasty suburbs. You need to think deeply about the root causes. The real political debate is how to live together, how to provide jobs. That’s fundamental. When people have jobs, there are fewer problems.”

The failure of the French government to effectively integrate the immigrant communities has been masked by the usual scapegoat, Islam. The bulk of the rioters come from a Muslim background, but Muslim leaders have been quick to draw a margin between what is happening in France and the teachings of the religion.

Tariq Ramadan was quick to call the issue a socio-economic crisis, where people are responding because they are treated as “second-class citizens who are not recognized by society and have no access to jobs or decent accommodation.”

Out of the perplexing myriad issues troubling the Muslim world at present, this is a rare instance where the Muslim response has been overwhelmingly united. Kamel Kabtane, rector of the Grand Mosque of Lyon, told Reuters, “They didn’t act like that because they’re Muslims, but because of the misery they’re living in.” He also firmly refuted the idea that it is the sole responsibility of Muslim leaders to calm the rioters, “We refuse to be sub-contractors, when French farmers go out on protest, they don’t turn to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference to intervene.”

Rather than being the cause of the instability, Islam poses as a solution to the problems facing France. The tolerant social-justice of a state influenced by Islamic social-ethics, when correctly applied, brings hope to the impoverished, destroys the very notion of “ghettos,” and aims at giving an equal opportunity to all citizens, regardless of race or religion. Islamic Spain had both Christians and Jews in the highest levels of government, because they earned their place and were the best at their jobs. French immigrant citizens, particularly from African and Muslim backgrounds, feel they’re not getting the chance to earn their place in their society. This is the lesson France can take from Islam. The rioters too have to realize, must realize, that Islam is fundamentally opposed to creating fear amongst ordinary citizens and destroying property. When the caliph Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) sent an army out to war in Syria, he gave specific instructions that the army was strictly forbidden to harm women, children, the aged, animals (except for food), and trees. These instructions were given at a time of war, so how stringent must the rules of engagement be when one isn’t fighting a war? Destruction of property and commodities is not the answer.

Have the riots achieved anything? Yes and no. The unwholesome conditions that face so many of France’s population on a daily basis psychologically, socially, and economically have been thrust into the global spotlight. The unwelcome negative publicity targeting Islam is a negative drawback. With that, the dip in support for dialogue, which is so crucially needed, and the rising popularity of the far right since the events in France don’t augur well for the marginalized youth. With presidential elections around the corner in 2007, those hell-bent on ridding France of the “scum” in the banlieus may be getting more support than they’ve ever imagined.

The sooner people realize that it is not another example of Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations,” nor an epic battle between good and evil, the better. France’s problem, to a lesser extent than Apartheid South Africa in 1976 though with many parallels, is once again the uprising of the have-nots against the haves. Apartheid was a methodically designed set of policies to segregate a society and expressly suppress the majority population along racial lines. This is not the case in France, but France could soon become an Apartheid state unless people are alerted to the reality in front of them. The sooner the haves realize this, the better. The quicker dialogue ensues, the better. When those in the upper-echelons of French policy-making can sincerely start to understand the problem in it’s socio-economic context, and then try their utmost to address the issue with humility, only then can France begin to be a better place for all.

Imran Garda is a 23-year-old Television Presenter for M-Net Supersport, Africa’s largest cable sports network. He attended Crawford College and The University of The Witwatersrand. Apart from his Television work, Imran is a freelance writer and volunteer for charitable organizations. He recently traveled to Bosnia with Islamic Relief to examine the situation there, ten years after the war. He is married to Salma and lives in Johannesburg, where he is currently trying to beautify his garden, get up earlier in the morning and become a better Muslim.

http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/ internationals/article326612.ece

- “Islam is now a European Religion”; SwissInfo’s Scott Capper interviews Tariq Ramadan.