Anti-Islam Fascism On Rise In France

Pig's Head, Swastikas Deface French Muslim Prayer Room In North African Community Centre.

First Published 2009-08-20
Courtesy Of Middle-East-Online

TOUL, France - Vandals hung a pig's head from the door of a Muslim prayer room in eastern France, daubing the building top to bottom with swastikas and anti-Islamic graffiti, police said Wednesday.

A passer-by alerted police Wednesday morning after discovering the pig's head hung from the door and trotters from the shutters of the prayer centre, part of a North African community centre on the outskirts of the town of Toul.

Home to Europe's largest Muslim community, estimated at five million, France has seen a rise in Islamophobic attacks in the past two years, with neo-Nazi desecration of Muslim war graves and arson strikes on several mosques.

Local MP Nadine Morano, who is also junior minister for families in President Nicolas Sarkozy's government, condemned the "unacceptable violence", calling for full light to be shed on the attack.

Critics argue that policies of Sarkozy's right-wing government that deny Muslim women the freedom to dress as they wish and mock their choice of wear have incited hatred among some members of the public against the Muslim minority.

"It wasn't that long ago when a German extremist killed a Muslim woman basically for wearing a headscarf," noted one commentator, in reference to Marwa Al-Sherbini.

Sherbini, a three-month pregnant 32-year old woman was stabbed to death 18 times by a 28-year old man in front of her three-year-old son and her husband inside a German courtroom.

set up a special panel of 32 lawmakers to consider whether a law should be enacted to bar Muslim women from wearing the full veil, known as a burqa or niqab.

Critics see French policies as undermining human rights and freedom of worship and expression which should be guaranteed in an authentic secular state.

"France is fighting its own secular values when restricting the rights and freedoms of Muslims," said one observer.

"It can't fight liberty in the name of liberty," he added.

"Will the French government become a 'Taliban equivalent' in Europe, telling women what they should or should not wear?"

Last Wednesday, a Paris swimming pool had refused entry to a young Muslim woman wearing a "burqini," a swimsuit that covers most of the body.

Officials in the Paris suburb of Emerainville said they let the woman swim in the pool in July wearing the "burqini," designed for Muslim women who want to swim without revealing their bodies.

But when she returned in August they decided to apply "hygiene" rules and told her she could not swim if she insisted on wearing the garment, which resembles a wetsuit with built-in hood.

"Quite simply, this is segregation," the paper quoted her as saying. "I will fight to try to change things. And if I see that the battle is lost, I cannot rule out leaving France."

Sarkozy's stance has also been criticised by some Muslim and non-Muslim feminists.

"The first (fundamental lesson for Sarkozy) is that men should stay well clear of becoming embroiled in expressing opinions on women’s clothes," wrote Yvonne Ridley, a widely-respected British broadcast journalist.

"If he really cared about the subjugation of women he would seriously tackle the appalling levels of domestic violence French women suffer at the hands of French men - two million are victims of bullying, violent partners ... a staggering 400 are murdered by their spouse," she added.

Ridley pointed out that a very tiny minority of Muslim women actually wear the burka in France.

"The real reason had nothing to do with the burka and everything to do with Sarkozy putting pressure on the Liberal Left, throwing a few cheap shots at the expense of Muslim women while trying to pick up a few votes at their expense as well," Yvonne wrote in article recently.