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Name
Masood
-
Profession
Question
Assalam Alaikum,
I wanted to know who are the people who are rioting? It appears they are Muslims. And if so what are the Muslim leaders' thoughts on possible solutions for this situation?
Answer
Dear Masood,
thanks a lot for your question.
Most of the people who rioting are definitely from a Muslim family descent. Two first remarks. If this is so, it does not mean that their anger is religiously based, but it is the product of the ethicist of the urban landscape. The French "cité" have sometimes more than 70% of Muslim population, they feel neglected and oppressed and their anger is a political language, a desperate and paradoxal quest of recognition. The problem is political much more than religious, that's why the role of Muslim leaders was very limited in both sense : French secularists suspected Islamist militants to push the youth to go on confrontation with the police, it was, as far as I know, not the case. But on the other side, Muslim leaders were not able to calm down the youth despite many attempts at different scales : a fatwa from the UOIF ("al-Ittihad"), many sermons on Friday, volunteers trying to speak to the youth and their families. Clearly it shows that the role of Muslim leaders in the suburbs is much less than many people thought : they are part of a much broader local governances, sharing influence with local committees social workers, families, also. Concerning solutions that Muslims could provide, I think that the problem of the riots is a broad national issue on which Muslim leaders have little influence : the fact that social inequality in France is now partly at least built on racial lines, but I am sure that we will have the occasion to discuss that later on.
Name
Faqeer Ali
- Norway
Profession
Question
Assalam u allaikum,
1) What do you suggest to Muslim families and youth living in France. How should they react? What should they do?
2) Muslims living in other countries how can they defend themselves in future from what is happening now in France?
Jzzak ALLAH!
Answer
Hi Faqeer, thanks a lot for your two relevant questions. The question is effectively what to do now. But to whom should this question be asked ? I am not sure that the "Muslim families" is the relevant actor: they are only part of global processes. The problem is how to address the issue of exclusion, from the top (the State) and from below (society). Let's leave the State at the moment and concentrate on society, and specifically the "cities", that are composed from Muslim families but also none Muslims, black sometimes but also French poor native . You have to get back to history, when they were built, after the second world war, during the sixties and seventies, they were highly politicized, controlled and organized under the leadership of syndicates, communist party, left-oriented organizations. All these political structures disappeared during the eighties, partly replaced by youth Muslim social movements such as " Union des Jeunes Musulmans " in Lyon for instance. But these movements are highly weakened now due to several reasons : no public support, heavy attacks launched against them, aging of some leaders and gentrification of others. Like in other places in the World. Muslim brothers are not really present in poor areas, leaving the space to groups such as Tabligh or Salafists, especially . But it seems to me that Salafism is much more formalizing a kind of retreat of the political arena than public involvement. So you don't have any structure today conveying political demands to the public sphere. The youth then used car burning and attacks to all public structures that they are considered responsible for their social relegation : schools, public transportation and of course the police. These riots, even if some have to be taken first off all as a political language, a desperate one, may be an in appropriated one, but a political act with a strong message addressed to the state. So I think the problem is big, does not concern families or Muslim families, but local politics : favor political contestation structures that act legally and these structures exist, some are Islamic, others are not, some are a mix of both of them.
Name
Lana
- Norway
Profession
Question
Why did everyone link what's going on to Islam and Muslims,all of a sudden we are responsible of anything that happens in the world while everyone else is so good and peaceful, the people rioting in Paris are a mixture of different races and cultures, why is the media making it an Islamic issue?
Answer
Thanks Lana, this is a very important point.
Effectively, until the previous riots, it was interesting to notice that the issue of " poor suburbs " was since the early nineties in France linked with the question of Islam because the national media feared the appearance in the public space of social movements expressing a religious discourse, and these movements partly recruited in those deprived areas. It is a very sensitive point because it challenges the basics of the French republican model (secularist and individualistic). At the same time, I think that what is happening in France those days might show partly your anxiety. First of all, It shows that the French ghetto is a product of the French politics much more than a strategy of French Muslim populations, and as far as I know, after few articles addressing the question if some Muslim radicals are behind the riots, the medias addressed the issue of the deprived suburbs much more in social terms, giving quite a lot the possibility of the people of these areas to express their discontent.
Name
Lamis
- Russian Federation
Profession
Question
I have read your CV and notice your interest in the suburban ,can you give us a clear idea in which way you are studying such phenomena ?
Answer
Thanks Lamis, long story ! I used to study Islam in Switzerland a long time ago for my PhD and went several times to Lyon at the time when the UJM was still on the rise, then I came back to my first love (Egypt) where I studied for four years a local suburb called Imbaba. Finally, I am back to Europe where I build some comparison (my last book) on the changes in religiosity in an Anthropological point of view. I left France two weeks before the beginning of the riots , after having a week in a suburb in Le Mans.
Name
hajji yak
- Nigeria
Profession
c/servant
Question
kindly explain vividly the genesis of the crisis in France. what measure do you think can be taken to ameliorate the said problems?
Answer
Thanks for this question. The crisis have several steps and of course has to be situated on the long term. First of all, there are two long term processes : the marginalization of these areas due to economical factors and social housing politics and the depolarization of the populations living in those areas which are also politically deprived. Afterwards you had a middle term factor : the Sarkozy politics, linked with the approach of the administration of these areas (drastic reduction of neighborhood, police, verbal provocation) that are used by police . A crucial point was Sarkozy's "result culture" approach, pushing policemen to make figures, that means to come with arrests. This had a multiplicative effect on the social resentment, especially among young men. Finally you had the death of Zyad and Bounna, followed by police declaration which was understood as a lie and on top of that the tear gas inside the Billal mosque. First of all, the riots were spontaneous, without clear meaning, at the end, it was a challenge to the coactive approach of the interior minister, a challenge that the young won. It proved that coactions was producing violence not social peace. but at the same time, the gap between anything official and these populations is widened strongly. State means oppression but at the same time the government responses (reopening special budgets for social welfare) proved that violence is giving results
As far as trust (in the institutions, in the State, in the government) is concerned, I would think that the dismissal of Sarkozy would be a useful on short term. On the long term, there is clearly a thing that has to be addressed : the fact that social inequality is organized in ethnic and religious terms. so either you accept a communitarian model that is partly de facto present in France (but ideological not recognized) and support a community building process, or you stick to a real integrative model that does not exist in fact. But the problem is that the populations in these areas are not organized on communalist lines : look at the inability of religious leaders to restore peace, at the fact that families obviously have to authority on their children, at the fact that they attack sometimes the cars of their neighbors. These youth are the sons of the Republic, but the abandoned sons. So if individualization prevails (and everybody says it in those suburbs), the State should simply act according to his own credo. But it will cost a lot and clash with a neo-liberal orientation. so I would not be very optimistic : behind the fire, there are long term and intimate wounds and pains that will take time to heal.
Name
Rock
-
Profession
Question
Do you expect the riots in France to be spread in other EU countries?
Answer
I have no prediction, only a hope : that the riots will be interpreted as a symbolical act, as a political demand, and responded as such.
Name
Rock
-
Profession
Question
Do you expect that the riots in France will be spread in other EU countries?
Answer
Already has been answered.
Name
Sarah.
-
Profession
Question
Assalamalaikum
Why can't this whole situation be carried out in a peaceful way.Causing public damaged can't get any quick benefits.
Answer
causing public damage is the product of the deterioration of politics as I explained before, of course peaceful means are better but the point is what are they ?
Name
Adam
-
Profession
Question
I wonder what kind of model is the French model of integration; during the Hijab crisis they insisted that the French citizens should be equally treated and represented themselves in the public domain . How can we understand the current situation if there are many kind of discrimination in France?
Answer
Definitely, the French model is ambiguous. On one side official discourse will say that it only recognize individual, but "communities" are always present in the daily urban governance : in several cities, social housing is attributed according to ethic affiliation (Moroccans, Algerians), local politicians will play with "Muslim vote" or seek to co-opt with "community leaders", recruitment in companies are working on an ethnic preference, and even if there were attempts to correct this, it has never worked : ethnic and religious affiliation are now a part of lines of inequality in France, but also the expression of a society that battle against social mixture. If you are petit bourgeois you will do a maximum to be a bourgeois, if you are at that stage you will invest big efforts and money to reach the superior stage. And in the poor quarters, everybody wants to leave the community ; the "French ghetto" (Eric Maurin) is a global social phenomenon, that is build from top-to-down, and therefore very difficult to change only with political decision. Clearly in France the republican model of equality of chances is an illusion.
Name
Reham
-
Profession
Question
Marginalization is the keyword of what we are seeing now , do you think that the right wing parties will benefit from the incidents in France?
Answer
Hi Reham, I think that marginalization is the keyword, but there is another one : dignity. The incidents are clearly orchestrated by people such as Jean-Marie Le Pen or Phillipe de Villiers, and certainly it will give some votes to everybody who thinks in security terms and not in terms of dignity. At the same time, political memory is most of the time short so there are some reasons to be optimistic.
Name
Abdullah
- France
Profession
Question
"Why Now?" Because Muslim guilt has slowly gone away. After 9/11 many Muslims were ashamed to be lumped together with the terrorists. We felt like we had to explain things and take perhaps partial responsibility for those bums on 9/11. We are a huge family. We care about all peoples. However, when Western governments keep pushing us Muslims more and more because they can...things happen. We are not going to take it anymore. Crazy laws that followed 9/11 will fall and Muslims today have had enough. We're sorry bombings have occurred. We sincerely are. We sorry many people cannot see Muslims as productive human beings who deserve more than poverty. However, we're not going to take abuse anymore. Focus on the terrorist, not the Muslim. Focus on treating us like human beings who can work well with all peoples if given a chance.
Answer
Hi Abdallah,
There is effectively a problem of recognition, but I am not that sure that the anger in the suburbs is organized in such broad ideological terms. Motivations seems much more local to me : police harassment, daily controls plays a major role. Youth were upset to be qualified as "rabble". I think that violence is a radical way to express adherence to republican values that are ignored in a systematic way and that Islam is not a direct element in what is going on (it plays nevertheless a role in an indirect way as one of the marginalized factor in addition to race and place of living)
