Muslims fear Paris attacks backlash would polarize France
French President Francois Hollande (left) welcomes Tunisian President Beji Caid El Sebsi in Paris on November 14, 2015, following a series of coordinated attacks in and around Paris late November 13 which left more than 120 people dead. PHOTO |STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN | AFP
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Now he fears the November 13 massacre across the capital will deepen a dangerous “them and us” schism between France’s five-million-strong Muslim population and the rest of society.
There are many who voice anxiety about their place in a country with a bloody colonial history in North Africa and a commitment to secularism that some see as contradictory with Islamic teachings.
This anxiety spiked as politicians such as ex-PM Alain Juppe calling on Muslims “to publicly say they have nothing to do with this barbarism”.
PARIS, Monday
A fireman of Algerian origin, Faisal helped evacuate thousands from the Stade de France during the Paris attacks, guiding panicked football fans to safety as suicide bombers blew themselves up outside.
Now he fears the November 13 massacre across the capital will deepen a dangerous “them and us” schism between France’s five-million-strong Muslim population and the rest of society.
The jihadists behind the attacks appear to be Arab Europeans, and the 40-year-old fireman worries that French Muslims may suffer greater discrimination.
“If you have a Muslim name, they stop seeing you as a French person. They see you as an Arab, a potential terrorist,” Faisal said.
FAILED ASSIMILATION
The attacks will also exacerbate an existing problem, he fears — that many Muslims don’t feel part of France, and even resent it.
And that resentment is precisely what the Islamic State group seeks to exploit.
Like others around Boulevard Barbes, a bustling microcosm of Paris’ second and third-generation ethnic communities, Faisal condemned the attacks.
“I was working inside the Stade de France on Friday night when we got the call on the radio to evacuate everyone. But when this kind of attack happens, it deepens the separation between us and the rest of society,” he said.
France’s Muslim community — the largest in Europe — is as diverse as the country itself.
BLOODY COLONIAL HISTORY
But there are many who voice anxiety about their place in a country with a bloody colonial history in North Africa and a commitment to secularism that some see as contradictory with Islamic teachings.
This anxiety spiked as politicians such as ex-PM Alain Juppe calling on Muslims “to publicly say they have nothing to do with this barbarism”.
Meanwhile, anti-Muslim hate crimes have risen by 300 per cent in Britain in the week following the coordinated attacks in Paris, according to figures published on Monday.
“A vast and overwhelming majority of the 115 attacks were against Muslim women and girls aged between 14 and 45 who were wearing traditional Islamic dress,” according to a report in The Independent newspaper.
The perpetrators were mainly white males aged 15 to 35.
