French minorities alarmed by far-right wins
Valentine Pasquesoone ("Al Jazeera," April 24, 2014)
Paris, France - It was an unprecedented breakthrough. France's far-right
party, the National Front, won the vote in 11 cities in local elections on
March 31, and took control of three more through far-right-leaning
candidates.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the anti-immigrant, eurosceptic National
Front, described it as an "exceptional" moment. Five days after the ballot,
she
announced the party's first measure for the 11 cities now controlled by her
party. "We will not accept any religious requirements when it comes to
school cafeteria menus," Le Pen said.
Her announcement raised concerns over the true agenda of National Front
leaders and the party's newly elected mayors - one of them, in the
northeastern city of Hayange described Islam as scary, "highly offensive and
dangerous
for democracy" in a recent autobiography.
As the National Front makes gains at the local level, French Jews and
Muslims have voiced a common fear about the rise of xenophobia in the country.
Their communities, they say, are becoming the direct targets of the far
right - and of politicians eager to gain votes on that side of the political
spectrum.
A feeling of insecurity
The president of the French Union of Jewish Students, Sasha Reingewirtz,
27, recently returned from a group visit to the cities of Frejus, Forbach,
Henin-Beaumont and Beziers, among others. All were far-right strongholds in
the local elections, and some elected a National Front mayor.
The group said they found a strong mistrust of the government among voters,
and a tendency to be seduced by the National Front. "More and more French
people are tempted by their ideas," Reingewirtz said.
Given this political climate, Reingewirtz said he worries that tolerance of
anti-Semitic speech will rise even further. "I hear stories of students
feeling targeted on campus, in the street and at work, simply because they
are Jewish. This is becoming more common."
The same concerns are expressed within the Muslim community. Enis
Chabchoub, president of the Muslim association of Noisy-le-Grand, in the
suburbs of
Paris, said anti-Muslim incidents occur quite frequently now. Veiled women
have been attacked on the street or prevented from accessing banks, he
said. "In some schools, Muslim children have to eat [non-halal] meat," he
claimed.
A total of 1,274 racist, anti-Semitic or Islamophobic acts and threats took
place in France in 2013, according to the French National Consultative
Commission on Human Rights. The number of Islamophobic acts and threats rose
from 201 in 2012, to 226 in 2013, while the number of anti-Semitic acts and
threats fell from 614 in 2012, to 423 in 2013.
A report by the commission has shown that over the past 20 years, these
numbers have trended upward.
A 'xenophobic climate'
According to Ariane Chebel d'Appollonia, a professor at Rutgers University
who researches racism and far-right movements, the rise of the National
Front isn't the only factor.
"Over the past 20 years, political forces have banalised racism in order to
gain votes," she said. "Making far-right ideas more mainstream has fuelled
a xenophobic climate in the country."
D'Appollonia said several right-wing politicians have tried to use
far-right ideas as a means of reaching National Front voters. An often used
theme
is "the fear of Islam" and the idea that the religion - now the
second-largest in France - is a threat to the country.
M'Hammed Henniche, secretary-general of the Union of Muslim Associations of
Seine-Saint-Denis, said a series of laws, "voted by the right and kept by
the left", have contributed to making Islamophobia more mainstream.
Henniche referred to the French ban on street prayers and the political debate
leading to a ban on full-face veils.
"Islamophobia started when politicians placed the spotlight on us,"
Chabchoub said.
Rise of free speech or hate speech?
According to Jean-Yves Camus, a French researcher on nationalism and
extremism in Europe, when it comes to religious freedom, the far-right party
has
targeted Jews and Muslims at a similar level. "When the National Front
talks about pork in school cafeterias or religious signs in public, it
concerns
both communities," he said, adding that the party's goal is to reaffirm
France's Christian heritage - and violate the religious freedom of French
minorities.
Behind this threat, the Jewish community seems most worried about the rise
of extremist speech. Robert Ejnes, the executive director of the
Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, said anti-Semitic
sentiment
is spreading on social networks, but also through expression by key public
figures.
He referred to the case of the French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, who
has been convicted several times of making anti-Semitic statements during
his shows. The controversial humourist, Ejnes said, "has led to the rise of
a free, anti-Semitic and xenophobic speech" in France.
Jean-Francois Strouf, director of projects at a Jewish cultural centre in
Paris, said these extreme-right speeches have fewer limits than in the past.
At the same time, far-right parties have become more acceptable. The
correlation between these two trends is particularly worrying for the Jewish
community.
"To me, the most dangerous aspect of the National Front is the fact that
they now present themselves as a mainstream party," Strouf said. "Yet they
will never condemn a racist or anti-Semitic speech. By doing that, they are
going to normalise it."
As more French Jews have become insecure, some have started to change their
way of life. Parents have chosen to put their children in private or
Jewish schools. Others have moved, not only for economic reasons, but in order
to live in "less problematic" areas, according to Strouf.
In recent years, the number of French Jews moving to Israel has risen
sharply. Nearly 3,300 French citizens moved to Israel in 2013, a 70 percent
increase from 2012. More than 850 French citizens relocated to Israel in
January and February this year - a 312 percent increase from the same period
in
2013.
'This is a brain drain'
The increase in migration isn't only the result of a rising far-right in
France, observers say. According to Camus, the Montauban and Toulouse
shootings of March 2012 - in which four Jewish people and three soldiers were
killed by Mohammed Merah, a man claiming inspiration from al-Qaeda - led
several members of the community to contemplate leaving France. "But this
isn't a
massive migration wave," Camus said. "And there are other reasons, such as
the economic crisis and professional opportunities abroad."
The same factors explain why some young Muslims are also leaving the
country. "This is the brain drain," d'Appollonia said. "Some of them also
leave
because they want to practice their religion more freely." Leaders of both
Jewish and Muslim communities say the National Front can't, by itself, be
the reason driving people to leave the country.
Pundits also put into perspective the National Front's results in the last
mayoral elections. According to d'Appollonia, the economic crisis, along
with an unprecedented lack of trust in the government, aided the party's
recent gains.
"It was a local breakthrough and a victory of ideas," the researcher said.
"But we can't talk yet of a national rise." Even if it gained 11 cities,
the National Front presented candidates in only 597 municipalities. This, as
a total, represented less than two percent of France's more than 36,000
cities.
"Islamophobic and far-right ideas are certainly gaining ground within the
population," said Yacine Medjahed of the French Young Muslims association.
"But did the National Front's recent local gains worry me? Not at all."
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