By Mehdi Roland, a member of the Béziers branch of the CCIF, a national organization founded to work towards a society where there is no place for islamophobia or racism.

 

The CCIF (Collectif Contre l’Islamophobie en France/’Collective against Islamophobia in France’) was established ten years ago to counter racism against Muslims in metropolitan France and more recently across Europe. The work of the CCIF was recognised in 2010 by the U.N. who nominated it as a consultant member on these issues.  The association’s annual report is also submitted to the President of the Republic and the Minister of the Interior.

 

There has been a significant increase in acts against Muslims over the last few years.  But the numbers are still less than the reality as many victims fail to report incidents. Béziers set up its own local group in 2013, one of whose roles is to inform and help victims deal with discrimination or aggression. In 2012, the national CCIF reported 469 incidents towards institutions or individuals, in contrast to 269 in 2011 and 188 in 2010, which is an increase of 57.4%. In 2012, 40 mosques were targeted, 95% more than in 2011. 418 incidents were reported targeting individuals, an increase of 156 acts more than the previous year and 60% more individual victims. 80% of those victims were women. Attacks on the Grande Mosque in Béziers has trebled in the last 10 years (insulting slogans or Nazi crosses, broken windows, throwing bottles of alcohol, etc…)

 

The increase in islamophobia is due to a number of factors:

 

-          Uncorroborated press coverage against Muslims which plays on fear even though the threat is non-existent.  In 20 years, there has been one reported death in France linked to Islamic terrorism or an Islamic pretender. Comparatively, 800 people have died as a result of homicide, 60,000 by cigarettes, 40,000 by alcohol, or one woman dies every three days as a result of domestic violence. But we exacerbate the terrorist threat in the media and in opinion polls (ex: 75% of French people fear attacks source: M6). Europol affirms that 0.4% of terrorist acts are attributable to Muslims in Europe. Out of 249 terrorist acts affecting 9 European states, 163 were carried out by separatist groups, 45 by the extreme-left and 3 by Islamists. There appears to be a desire to sustain paranoia and disinformation based on a crude link between terrorism and Islam on the one hand and on the other between terrorism and reality.

 

-          Policies which perpetuate an Islamophobic atmosphere and draconian laws against Muslims are denounced in Europe and the United States. In essence, secularism means the neutrality of the state vis-à-vis religion; it allows for everyone to freely practice their beliefs in both the private and public zones to the extent that this freedom does not restrict one over others, as stated in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  However, the fact is that France uses a ‘secularism of exclusion’ which rather than emancipating women, protecting children, ‘integrating’ Muslims into society, marginalizes and stigmatizes them, not unlike the experience of the Jewish people at the dawn of the Second World War.

 

In Béziers, both before and since the launch of our local CCIF branch, we can confirm the national trend. To mention but a few examples: refusal to treat a patient by a doctor; physical aggression towards a mother with her baby in arms; the refusal to respond to complaints by the commissariat; and discrimination and islamophobic comments in driving schools, school establishments, training institutes, shops, in the street, etc. This summer, the extreme right- wing municipal counselor Alain Ricard published in his space the ‘tribune libre’ in the ‘Journal de Béziers’, an anti-Muslim diatribe concerning the opening of the new mosque in rue Raspail with words to the effect: ‘It is up to us Biterrois and French, whether to adapt ourselves to new foreign cults and costumes” (although the Muslims are equally Bitterois and French and Islam is the second religion of France) and “It is an invasion”. The article was not censored by the town. And Robert Ménard, the 2014 Béziers mairie candidate, stated in the right-wing weekly publication ‘Valeurs Actuelles’ that Islam in France is “always more obtrusive, aggressive and seeking to conquer”. In reality, these politics have nothing to do with Islam; on the contrary they ensure and provoke extremes.

 

From the point of the view of the victims, we observe a flagrant lack of information of their rights. Our job is to inform people of their rights and help them seek legal help if necessary. Complaints are not always admissible but reporting them is important for monitoring purposes.

 

The CCIF is a platform for the many failings of rights which violate the dignity of the individual. Hence, national communication campaigns. At the end of August the CCIF scaled Mont-Blanc as an expression of condemnation of Islamaphobia and announced from the ‘rooftops of Europe’ its new project   “IMAN”: Islamophobia Monitoring and Action Network, bringing together European associations under the slogan: “Europe United Against Islamophobia!”

    

“The CCIF Béziers was born in the offices of the association Esprit Libre Béziers, which promotes the development of interreligious understanding. Every two months Catholics, Protestants and Muslims gather in the association’s offices and learn more about each other, in order to act together for peace. Serenity, laughter and sharing punctuate these meetings. The CCIF Béziers encourages initiatives which challenge misperceptions and reinforce national sorority.”

 

For more information: Mehdi ROLAND, CCIF Béziers (page facebook) or www.islamophobie.net