"France has a problem with Islam"
§ "I am not an Islamophobe. Women have the right to wear
headscarves, but I do not understand why we are embracing this religion [Islam]
and those manners that are incompatible with the freedoms that are ours in the
West." — Pierre Bergé, French fashion mogul.
§ French security officials rejected an Israeli company's offer of
terrorist-tracking software that could have helped them identify the jihadist
cell that carried out the attacks. "French authorities liked it, but the
official came back and said there was a higher-level instruction not to buy
Israeli technology," a well-placed Israeli counter-terrorism analyst
revealed.
§ Jacques Hamel, the priest who had his throat slit by two Muslims
in Normandy, had donated land adjacent to his church to local Muslims to build
a mosque, and they had been given use of the parish hall and other facilities
during Ramadan.
§ At least five of the jihadists who carried out the attacks in
Paris and Brussels financed themselves with social welfare payments: they
received more than €50,000 ($53,000).
§ Muslim employees at Air France have repeatedly attempted to
sabotage aircraft, according to Le Canard Enchaîné. "Concerning Air
France, we have seen several anomalies before the departure of commercial
flights," an intelligence official said.
§ "There will be no integration until we get rid of this
atavistic anti-Semitism that is kept secret. It so happens that an Algerian
sociologist, Smain Laacher, with great courage said that 'it is a disgrace to
maintain this taboo, namely that in Arab families in France and elsewhere
everyone knows that anti-Semitism is spread with the mother's milk.'" —
Georges Bensoussan, sued for alleged hate speech against Muslims for having
made that statement.
§ The Mayor of Beziers, Robert Menard, was charged with incitement
to hatred for tweeting his regret at witnessing "the great
replacement" to describe France's white, Christian population being
overtaken by foreign-born Muslims. "I just described the situation in my
town," he said. "It is not a value judgement, it is a fact. It is
what I can see."
The Muslim population of France was
approximately 6.5 million in 2016, or around 10% of the overall population of
66 million. In real terms, France has the largest Muslim population in the
European Union, just above Germany.
Although French law prohibits the
collection of official statistics about the race or religion of its citizens,
Gatestone Institute's estimate of France's Muslim population is based on
several studies that attempted to calculate the number of people in France
whose origins are from Muslim-majority countries.
What follows is a chronological review of
some of the main stories about the rise of Islam in France during 2016:
JANUARY 2016
January 1. The Interior Ministry announced the most
anticipated statistic of the year: a total of 804 cars and trucks were torched
across France on New Year's Eve, a 14.5% decrease from the 940 vehicles burned
during the annual ritual on the same holiday in 2015. Car burnings, commonplace
in France, are often attributed to rival Muslim gangs that compete with each
other for the media spotlight over which can cause the most destruction. An
estimated 40,000 cars are burned in France every
year.
January 3. Raouf El Ayeb, a 31-year-old
French citizen of Tunisian origin, was charged with attempted
homicide after he tried to run down four troops who were guarding a mosque in
Valence. Although police found "jihadist propaganda images" on Ayeb's
computer, they attributed the attack to "depressive syndrome" rather
than terrorism because he was not heard shouting "Allahu Akbar"
(Allah is the greatest) during the attack.
January 7. Sallah Ali, a Moroccan born
French citizen, stormed a police station
in the 18th district of Paris while shouting "Allahu Akbar." He was
carrying a butcher knife, and Islamic State flag and was wearing what appeared
to be an explosive belt. Police opened fire and shot him dead. The belt was
found to contain fake explosives. Investigators were unsure whether the attack
was an act of terrorism or the work of a man who was "unbalanced."
January 11. A 16-year-old Turkish Kurd
brandishing a machete attacked a Jewish
teacher outside a school in Marseille. The perpetrator said he had acted
"in the name of Allah and the Islamic State."
January 12. Some 80,000 people applied
for asylum in France in 2015, but only one-third of the applications were
approved, according to the French
Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless people (Ofpra).
January 13. Interior Minister Bernard
Cazeneuve banned three Islamic
cultural organizations that ran the Lagny-sur-Marne mosque, which was closed
down as part of a security crackdown. He accused the leaders of the groups of
inciting hatred and calling for jihad over a period of several years.
January 15. An Ifop poll for Le Monde
found that half (51%) of
French Jews feel they are under threat because they are Jewish; 63% said they
have been insulted; and 43% said they have been attacked. Some 70% of those who
said they want to leave France said they been exposed to anti-Semitic acts.
January 27. The Ministry of Culture assigned an "18 and
over" rating to "Salafistes," a documentary which features
interviews with North African jihadists. The filmmakers said the government
wanted to "kill the film" by banning it from being aired on public
TV, and making cinemas reluctant to show it. Filmmakers François Margolin and
Lemime Ould Salem insisted that the film should be given as wide an audience as
possible. "What has upset the French authorities is not the violence, but
the subject itself," Margolin said. "They want to prevent French
citizens from knowing the truth."
January 28. The Council of State (Conseil
d'État), France's highest administrative court, rejected a request by
the country's Human Rights League (Ligue des droits de l'Homme, LDH) to
lift the state of emergency imposed after the November 2015 terror attacks.
"The imminent danger justifying the state of emergency has not
disappeared, given the ongoing terrorist threat and the risk of attacks,"
according to a statement issued by the court. LDH had argued that the
extraordinary powers given to security services posed a threat to democracy.
FEBRUARY 2016
February 2. Six converts to Islam were arrested in Lyon on
suspicion of seeking to purchase weapons in order to attack swinger clubs in
France. They were allegedly planning to travel to Syria after the attacks, and
had already purchased bus tickets to Turkey.
February 7. An increased police presence
in northern port of Calais spread France's migrant
crisis to other parts of the country. Migrant camps sprouted up in the nearby
ports of Dunkirk, Le Havre, Dieppe and Belgium's Zeebrugge, as migrants sought
new ways to cross the English Channel to Britain……………………..
Read the full text at: The
Islamization of France in 2016
