|
|
Muslims in France say they were deliberately into ghettos (File photo)
|
LONDON,
July 11 (IslamOnline.net) - French intelligence has accused 'ghetto'
communities of alleged “terrorist links” - now these communities
are responding by accusing the French authorities of putting them in
these ghettos in the first place.
“First
they put us in a ghetto, then they accuse of ghettoizing ourselves,”
Abdel Hak Eddajibi told the Observer Sunday, July 11.
Whichever
way he turns his head, Moroccan-born Eddajibi, who is married and has
three children, sees the same horizon: tower blocks. It may as well be
a wall.
“The
French authorities did not put us here by accident when they needed
cheap labor in the 1960s,” said Eddajibi, a 52-year-old teacher who
has lived on the Clos Saint-Lazare estate for 18 years. “It is too
easy to say these huge estates were a mistake of urban planning.
“This
housing was deliberately created because it was cheap to build,” he
said as he looked at the eight 15-storey blocks of the Clos. “The
residents were deliberately selected for their compliance. We know
this because the French authorities went out of their way to select
rural immigrants from north Africa. The urban people were too inclined
to join trade unions and get into politics.”
Standing
in the car park of his housing estate, he is unmoved by a French
intelligence service report
, leaked to Le Monde newspaper, that suggests he
lives in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country.
He
believes the report is exaggerated and merely provides further proof
of the yawning gap between the French establishment and France as it
is lived. 'The ghetto is here and they regret it. But they built it in
the first place,' he says.
Click
Here
to read the Observer’s report…
You
may also read…