The New Racist and Islamophobic Wave in France

We refuse that solidarity with the victims of the recent attacks and their families should serve as a pretext for racist and Islamophobic acts, as has been the case since the attack on Charlie Hebdo. [1]
We condemn the conflation between terrorists and migrants or refugees, encouraged by the demagogic measures of the state (such as closing borders) as well as the political exploitation of these tragic events to increase repressive securitization (intelligence law after January, state of emergency today).
We do not recognize ourselves as a part of the "sacred union" or jingoist and nationalist discourses pushed and exploited by the major worldwide media groups (see the wave of profiles "blue-white-red" encouraged by Facebook).
Because these patriotic, Islamophobic and xenophobic ideas, spread for months by the political class, express themselves concretely through violent acts and behaviour in the world :

In the suburbs of Paris :

  • In Créteil, a small town near Paris, "a dozen crosses and other brandings, carried out in blood red paint on Saturday morning at 5:30AM, were found by Muslim worshipers on their way to morning prayer at the Sahaba Mosque. Painted on the floor, the walls, the signs, the restaurant menu of the mosque, and on the adjacent parking lot, the crosses and dripping red marks were not yet dry when the first worshipers arrived at dawn."

Elsewhere in France :
In the regional areas of France, several different groups gathered on the Saturday after the Parisian attacks in order to pay homage to the victims, these gave way to raised tensions around France :

  • At Lille, in the northern region of Calais, where 500 people were gathered to march, around 15 National Front supporters, carrying the French national flag, chanted “Expel the islamists” while setting off bangers. Many of the protesters managed to push them away shouting and booing “Get out Fachos !” before around 15 riot police formed a kettle around the protestors, according to AFP.
  • At Pontivy, in the Morbihan region, 150 members of the far-right party of Brittany Adsav protested against immigration, chanting “People of Brittany open your eyes, close the boarders.” A Maghrebian passer-by was hit to the floor by a group of far-right activists.
  • At Metz, in the Moselle region, around 10 members of the new-right movement “Bloc identitaire” interrupted a gathering of around half a thousand people in front of a monument constructed for the victim, setting of bangers, flares and carrying a banner with “Expel the Islamists” written on it.

Several mosques have equally been attacked :

  • At Aubagne , near Marseille, a boar’s head was hung on the gates of the towns’ mosque.
  • At Oloron, in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques region, far-right tags referring to the LVF (for Legion of French Volunteers, a collaborationist military group of World War II), were written on a halal butcher shop and the mosque.
  • At Pontarlier, in the Franche-Comté region, racist graffiti were discovered on the walls of the town’s mosque, a mosque which has already been vandalized several times in the past. Some pork was also placed onto the place of worship.

Elsewhere in the World :

  • In the Netherlands, several mosques have been the target of malicious attack such as in Bergen-op-Zoom and Rosendael.
  • In Germany, a refugees safe house which was supposed to open Thursday morning was burnt down.
  • In Peterborough, Canada (Ontario), the town mosque was set on fire, most probably committed with criminal intent.

Sources (mainly in French) : Le Monde, Le Parisien, France Bleu, the "Midi Libre", the "Républicain Lorrain", l’Est Républicain, Confusionnisme.info, Europe 1, France 3 and also in German the Ostsee Zeitung...

Notes

Mots-clefs : Attentats de Paris

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