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Emerging from a meeting with De Villepin, Boubakeur called for "restoring peace" and ending violence. (Reuters).
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By
Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent
PARIS,
November 6, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The leaders of the sizable
Muslim minority in riot-ravaged France are stepping up efforts to
restore peace and security across after ten days of non-stop violence
in Paris's poor suburbs and major French towns.
The
Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF) will issue a fatwa
(religious edict) banning Muslims from joining the raging riots, IslamOnline.net
has learnt Sunday, November 6.
The
fatwa is expected to underlined that such acts run counter to the
basic teachings of Islam.
The
influential UOIF is one of the main groups comprising the umbrella
French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM).
Emerging
from a meeting with Prime Minister Dominique De Villepin on Saturday,
CFCM president Dalil Boubakeur called for "restoring peace"
and ending violence.
In
interviews with IOL Saturday, a number of imams in the Paris suburban
region of Seine-Saint-Denis refuted claims that Islam was being used
to fan the flames of the violence.
They
highlighted continued efforts since day one of the crisis to pacify
the angry young immigrants.
The
deaths 10 days ago of two youths fleeing police ignited pent up
frustrations among young men, many of them of North and black African
origin, at racism, unemployment, their marginal place in French
society and their treatment by the police.
Foul
Play
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Residents look at the burnt out commercial centre Evreux, 96km (60 miles) west of Paris. (Reuters).
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UOIF's
chairman Lhaj Thami Breze cast doubt over the parties behind the
accelerating violence.
He
accused several parties, including far-rightists and Zionist lobby, of
fishing in the troubled water to "smear the image of Muslims and
Arabs".
The
Muslim leader said many of the incidents involving the burning of
public properties remain ambiguous.
"The
rioting, which started as a spontaneous reaction, is not like that
anymore. Some parties are feeding these incidents," Breze
charged.
"The
perpetrators of such actions can never be Muslims," he averred.
The
Muslim leaders argued that some parties, including right extremists,
did not like what Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has done in favor
of Muslims.
Sarkozy
was one of the staunch supporters for establishing the CFCM and
supervised its first election in April 2003.
Failed
Policies
Leader
of the opposition Socialists, Francois Hollande, countered the
conspiracy theory.
He
held the French government and particularly Sarkozy responsible for
the worsening crisis.
"It's
the whole of the government's policies and the president of the
republic that are responsible" for the conflagration, Hollande
told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper.
He
said that Sarkozy, who hopes to become president in 2007 elections,
"carries a large part of the responsibility" for his
hardline law-and-order rhetoric.
The
French Communist Party, the Greens and the Socialist Party have joined
forces, demanding the sacking of Sarkozy over his handling of the
crisis.
He
has been accused of stoking passions by calling troublemakers
"racaille" or rabble, and saying that crime-ridden areas
need to be "cleaned with a power-hose."
