Assalam Alaikum,

There have been growing resentment of Muslims being ill treated in france, by mean of socio-economic problems faced by them. Last year's band on Hijab worn by Muslim girls to Public school is another hot issue. The recent riots in Paris are the sum of all these frustrations of Muslims that have resulted in sixth straight nights of clashes between police and the local youngsters. These riot has caused the Prime Minister of France to cancel his visit to Canada, and made him come openly into public to criticize his interior minister to tone down his rhetoric against the rioting youth. All this will certainly have some affect on this years Presidential Elections in France. By the way Muslims in France, if I am not mistaken, are the biggest minority combining all the different ethnic origins.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4401670.stm

Thanks.

I don't know why, but this particular episode seems to belong to a chain of conspiracies that have been going on in France lately. I don't know if you ppl remember it or not, but almost a month or so back, in 3 consecutive weeks, there were severe fires breaking out in buildings that were being resided by some black people within france(i don't remember the exact city). It seems that the minorities are being subject to cruelties on purpose and even though the Govt. knows it, it is not taking any measures to prevent it. Had these muslim youths not protested so strongly for 6 long days, i don't think the President might have intervened in the matter at all.


Regards,

BUSHaRRaF

Assalam Alaikum,

Brother from what I know, French minorities are not happy with the lack of everything that they should be able to get as the majority does. There seems to be a lot of discrimination and such, and top of which French government on the name secularims took some steps that were very aggressive on their part, and didn't help the situation at all. I think these riots, which are in its 10 days are the anger of people, especially the young generation of minorities that they are taking out against the system. But after this, they will have someone who will listen to them after all.

Thanks.

The riots have not broken out in france without a reason. No wonder, the muslims have been facing some sort of suppression and are now protesting against it. Could someone please tell me if any muslim leadership has commented on the situation in France...?


Regards,

BUSHaRRaF

Seems to me as if nothing is happening and nothing will happen that is good for muslims specially,its just a Auto-Torching game that is going on,They dont respects cars much as we do!

__________________
نہ تیرا پاکستان ہے , نہ میرا پاکستان ہے , یہ اس کاپاکستان ہے , جو صدرپاکستان ہے

Thanx for sharing the link Rabia, but what I wanted to know was whether or not any Muslim nation has condemned the happenings in France in favour of the oppressed muslims over there....

Regards,

BUSHaRRaF

Assalam Alaikum,

Well Mr. Busharraf, let me first of all start with the little background on the minorities in Europe. Since we are all aware of Britain and France, racing against each other by colonizing better part of the globe to dominate each other in their colonial history. This continued until World War II, and by then these colonies were infected by European culture, and their way of living and such, and a lot of immigration also took place from people of these Colonies settling in Europe. In fact to the present day, people of these former colonies try their luck in these countries for opportunities. There are still some African countries where French is used as their second language, just like English in South Asia and other former English Colonies.

And by the end of World War II, two things happened, Europeans were busy driving one minority out of their lands, that being Jews, and in the mean time other minorities of these colonies were taking place of these Jews, as they were departing. Therefore, French minorities are mainly dominated by the people of African and Middle Eastern descend, as part of their ugly colonial past. Same applies with other European countries, mainly Britain, where South Asian and others are in their 3rd or 4th generation. As we all know that these once glorious colonial powers were no saint in their colonies themselves, how can they appreciate the people of that origin in their own country.

Incidentally, majority of the French Colonies in Middle East or in Africa, were populated by Muslims as a majority, therefore people migrating to France were Muslims and in contemporary France are generally referred as Muslim minority in general, and further differentiating their origins and such. If you look at the ratio of Muslims in Europe as a minority, compare to any other, it would be very higher. Since Islam is the part of our culture and identity, and generally Muslims living in the west have become more conservative to their Islamic values, and the new generations amidst all this discrimination take their Muslim identity very proudly. The dilemma for the younger generation growing up in the west in general is of confusion, because they are exposed to two sets of Cultures, one that is practiced in their homes and their community, and other which is the popular Culture of the given country they are residing, which generally look down on them. Therefore, Muslim parents are very much involved with their Islamic Communities along with their children, and Mosques become more of Community Centers, an epicenter of Islamic communal activities.

Amidst all this, younger generation growing up face a lot of discrimination for associating themselves with their religious identity, rather than a popular culture, therefore resulting in the discrimination. There is also a barrier of communication gap, for newly migrated people, because they may not be well versed with the language and such. This all creates a kind of chaotic face off between minority and the majority, where majority happens to be very ethnocentric, and sometimes just discriminate because you are BROWN, and many more reasons, you just have to use your imagination. Unemployment rate in some of these communities goes as high as 50%, and lack of other civil injustices that have been committed against them; such as poor living conditions, poor medical care and countless more. On top of which the scarf or Hijaab ban on girls in elementary schools, that translates into confinement for them, even if they go to college and then to job market, because they know they will always be discriminated, just because they wear HIJAAB proudly. All this has rendered a great social differences, and suspicion on the part of these minorities toward the majority and the establishment itself.

What sparked the recent riots, were the death of these two teenagers, who were Muslims of African descend, who were allegedly hiding in a power station from police when they got electrocuted. Afterwards, police used some kind of tear gas or some kind of riot control device against the people in the nearby vicinity of mosque, who had gathered after the incident. So these were the two developments that caused these riots. French authorities in the beginning arrogantly denied any wrong doing on the part of Police, and took it as business as usual, with its Interior Minister using a harsh tone against rioters.

Muslim Clerics and other community leaders were brushed aside for the first few days of the incident, until the Prime Minister canceled his trip to Canada, and saw no way out but to include these people to resolve the crisis. If you read carefully on the part of establishment, you will see that there are people who are taking hardliner approach, and there are other who have a little softer tone to it, it is because of the Election year, where the opinion of the majority counts, and this whole is bound to become an election issue.

Muslim Clerics themselves denounced the riots, but have made it very clear to the authorities that things just can no longer be operated, as business as usual. As a result, you see Prime Minister of France coming on TV stressing on urban renewal programs and such. One of the clerics, after the meeting with Prime Minister, said it very clearly that the riots will be beyond anyone’s control until the results are fast driven, and French authorities immediately reflect upon their discriminatory based policies in the name of Secularism.

Just last night alone, about 1200 cars were torched, and riots claimed their first fatality, pushing the government to allow local authorities to declare curfews and other measures. About 1200 people have been arrested, since the ordeal begin, yet the anger has just gotten worst, with riots taking a full swing spreading across France, and among other minorities besides Muslims.

One thing is for sure, that after this ordeal France will realize that they can no longer operate under their secular agenda, and brushing aside their minorities and such. One can only hope that some changes are in its making after the dust of these riots is all over and settle across France.

I also like to add, that clerics and community leaders held a peace march against the riots and awareness of the community problems. Infact, they are also foming neighborhood patrols, comprising of active citizens of the community to patrol the streets to help stop this ordeal.
Thanks.

Thanx for elaborating on the topic. I appreciate ur contribution. Your writing was quite helpful in understanding the context of these sad happenings in France..... Muslims all-over the world will keep facing the same fate lest they revive islam in its true spirits, start practising it instead of preaching it, and by UNITING as one nation.

Regards,

BUSHaRRaF

Salam dear all,
i have been your discussions on the currents roits of Muslim youth in France. Although i am a member of this forum for quite a long time, but i have'nt wrote often. Today i decided to write, but the other way round.
Let me tell you the problems with our muslims. we are basically facing three fundamental problems. That is the lack of Unity, lack of Leadership, and lack of Objectives. But why do we have this problems? The single answer is that number of muslims all over the world is negligible. It sound a bit strange. isnt it? you may have thought that there are over 1 billion of muslims all over the world. yes off courses. there are. by only verbally and in documents. Muslims, by the difinition of islam, is the one who accepts islam by his heart and practice. we lack both. So the real problem is that we are far from islam, the one which was preached and practised by Mohammad(SW) and his followers.
As a corollary, it means that we, the muslims, are responsible for all the problems that we facing all over the world, be that in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine or any other place. Unless and until we dont improve our faith and practice concerning our religion, we should not blame the west being responsible for our miseries. Let us stop blamming them and concentrate on our lackings.
Now come to the current roits of muslims in France. can any body tell me about the speciall rights given to the minorities in pakistan and other muslim countries. off course almost negligible rights are given to the minorities in our society. I am currently studying in France and observing every thing that is happening. the first thing is that what ever the problems that are here in france, are created by muslims. believe me, i am speaking literally. If somone has stolen a computer or a cycle. close you eyes and you can tell without any doubt that this will be a north african or a black afirican( mostly muslims). if you see someone crying or misbehaving, he will be a muslim. i have'nt seen, even a single time, a french person crying, misbehaving or playing a loud music in the hostel.
now let us come towards the position of muslims in france. I am offcourse and Al-hamdulillah a muslim. In the Ramadan, i had a meeting with my professor, and he offered me a coffee, i told him that i dont like coffee a lot. He suddenly understood and asked me if i had fasting. i told him 'yes'. By saying this, he told the girl in the cafeteria not to bring coffee even for him. I told him you should take your coffee as i would'nt mind. He told me " no, if are having fasting, then it is not good to take coffee in front of you". What more respect do you expect from a non-muslim professor.
Not only this, there are aftar parties arranged on daily basis in a hall near a mosque. I wondered who is giving the fund to the organisation who is organising the aftar parties. I was astonished to see the Mayor of the city sitting on a chair near me on the 29th of Ramadan. He told us that the city government(mayor and his canbinet) is giving funds for organising this aftar party on daily basis and each year.
On the Eid day, all the arrangements were done by the local government for NIMAZ-E-EID. There were eight city government's buses taking people, free of cost, to the Eid Gah. I saw, for the first time, French traffic police there.
The purpose of narrating all this here is that i want to say that there is no descrimination on religous basis in france. Also i would also add, that most black and north afirican muslims(north afirican muslim are not black) lack in skills and are also not good in education. Automatically they will face difficulty in finding jobs. This is natural.
conclusion. the future of muslims lies in our hands. let us act as responsible muslims, by advancing our selves in the modern science and technology. let us stop blamming others responsible for our miseries. unless and untill we dont accept that we are responsible for our problems, there is no way out.

Correction in the first line. it is i have been reading..............( the word reading was missing)

Please apologise if there are any errors of english, as i speak french mostly, and therefore my english has weakened a lot.