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"Invisible" French Muslim Wants To Be Elected In Marseille
by Julian Hollick
MARSEILLE, France, March 18 (IslamOnline) - Nouredine Hagoug prays five times a day, has made his Hajj, dresses like a typical Frenchman and is passionately proud of
Marseille and Gaullism.
Gaullism is the quintessential party of French nationalism, founded by General de Gaulle in 1945; for Nouredine it was a natural fit.
The 40-year-old Muslim Frenchman wants to be the first Muslim to be elected on the Gaullist Party ticket in Marseille municipality in Sunday's nationwide elections. And he wants to do so "quietly" simply because he is a Muslim.
Polling opened in 36,000 French cities, towns and villages for the first round of municipal elections that are expected to change the country's electoral map. The vote will be the first under new equality legislation requiring parties to field equal numbers of male and female candidates. And the left is expected to win control of several key cities, including Paris.
Marseille, the second largest city in France, with 800,000 inhabitants, of whom 25% are Muslims from North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco) or Africa (Senegal), has traditionally seen an almost total absence of elected French Muslims.
With its emphasis on individualism, liberal capitalism, the family as the main social unit in society, and the idea that the individual (not the State) is responsible for his or her destiny, Gaullism appears a natural expression for Nouredine's idea of Islam.
Nouredine's father is an Imam in a neighborhood mosque: his mother, who died last year of cancer, became an unapologetic feminist and militant socialist, but was proud that Nouredine kept his faith, even if his political convictions took him towards French nationalism and economic liberalism.
But if he's elected when the results come out Monday, it will be because he deliberately decided not to be seen or heard by French voters. He's the invisible candidate. But as Nouredine argues: "if I want to get elected and to be able to help the Muslim community, first I have to become invisible!"
Municipal elections in France are notoriously odd. Parties establish a list of 15-20 candidates who appeal to different sections of the local electorate. If a Party wins it all, its list gets elected.
Nouredine is on the Gaullist party list in Les Quartiers Nord, the northern districts where 130,000 Muslims live. Only a third of the voters are "European", meaning white, non-Muslims. Many are elderly. But they vote.
North Africans, however, do not vote. No more than 25% of North Africans actually vote. Whether out of apathy or habit, even though a majority of them have French citizenship and identify themselves as French first, Muslims second, and North African third, they do not exercise the franchise.
Traditionally, those Muslims who have voted vote Socialist, believing French Socialists gave independence to Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco in the 1950s. History, however, shows it was General de Gaulle who negotiated peace with Algeria.
The Socialists governed Marseille for 40 years, coinciding with its economic decline. Unemployment in les Quartiers Nord reached over 50% in the period.
"There are families whose kids have never seen their fathers work a single day," explains Nouredine. "They have no idea what having a job even means. They hang around all day, steal cars, chase girls, and terrorize the elderly. We have to break this dependence, create jobs for them, show them they can be French and proud to be Muslims, both at the same time."
But many elderly white voters are scared stiff by juvenile crime (real or imagined). Many of them vote for the extreme Right National Front, who promise less subsidies for les Quartiers Nord, but more policemen on the streets.
The French have arguably the strongest sense of nationhood of any large European country. This Nouredine understands very well. If his supporters are too visible, holding meetings, getting quoted in the media, plastering walls with posters of Nouredine, the National Front will have a field day: "Nouredine wants an Islamic state," they'll trumpet, and those voters who might have voted Gaullist will vote ExtremeRight.
So Nouredine is the stealth candidate. He only campaigns in apartment blocks where he alone can open doors for the Gaullist Party, where no non-Muslim dares go. He hopes the media won't notice him, until the Gaullists win, and he is elected. Then, and only then, he can represent them, and push an agenda that marries Islamic values and French Gaullism.
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