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French Muslims Brace for Backlash after U.S. Attacks
PARIS, Sept 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Leaders of France's five million Muslims said Thursday they feared the attacks in the United States would lead to a backlash against Muslims in their country as well, news agencies reported Friday.
"A strong suspicion weighs on the Muslim religion even though there is no proof of any link with the attacks," said Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris Mosque, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"Our fear is that Muslims will be made scapegoats or considered a suspect community in the aftermath of these attacks.
"Already, a lot of media have been quick to point the finger at the Muslim community."
Boubakeur said he, and other French Muslim leaders, met Thursday with Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant to express their concerns in the wake of the horrific attacks.
"We shared with him our fears and he told us that French authorities were aware of the possible repercussions against the Muslim community," he said, quoted by AFP.
Vaillant's office said the minister had pledged during the meeting that the government would do its utmost to prevent the attacks and Islam being lumped together.
Boubakeur said even if those responsible for the carnage in New York, Washington and Pittsburgh proved to be Muslim, "we reject the idea that they could have acted in the name of Islam," AFP reported.
Alain Billon, an advisor on Islam at the interior ministry, said the Muslim community in France was increasingly feeling overwhelmed and helpless in the face of this week's tragic events.
"The situation is not comparable with what happened 10 years ago during the Gulf War, but it is similar in some ways," Billon said. "Nonetheless, the Muslim community knows that [French] public opinion makes a distinction between Islam as a religion and Islamists."
Boubakeur said security had not been boosted at Muslim institutions in the aftermath of the attacks, and that no incident had happened so far.
"We've had the usual hate mail and phone calls that you would expect but nothing more than that," he said, quoted by AFP.
He said Friday's prayer services in the country's mosques would be largely devoted to the tragedies in the United States.
"We will underline our condemnation of these attacks and stress that our religion is against such acts which are against Islam," he said.
Boubakeur on Thursday also attended a memorial service at the American Church in Paris for the victims of the attacks.
American media and leaders have notably denounced the widespread backlash against Muslims and Arabs around the U.S. following Tuesday's terror attacks.
U.S. President George W. Bush addressed the issue of a backlash Thursday in a phone conversation meeting with New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and New York Governor George Pataki.
"Our nation must be mindful that there are thousands of Arab Americans who live in New York City, who love their flag just as much as the three of us do," Bush said, "and we must be mindful that as we seek to win the war that we treat Arab Americans and Muslims with the respect they deserve.
"I know that is your attitudes as well, certainly the attitude of this government, that we should not hold one who is a Muslim responsible for an act of terror."
Congressman David Bonior (D-Mich.), known to speak out for Arab-Americans and Muslim Americans, and whose constituency includes one of the largest Arab-American populations in the country, issued a statement on the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, adding his voice to those of the other government officials and media who are reporting an anti-Muslim backlash and urging Americans to restraint.
"I come from Michigan, home to hundreds of thousands of Arab-Americans and American Muslims," Bonior said. "Already, leaders of the community there - patriotic Americans who every day give so much to this country, who have condemned these attacks, and who are as sickened by the carnage as everyone else - have been getting death threats.
"Such hateful prejudice offends us all."
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