Hege Storhaug, HRS
Da jeg i 2006 skrev underkapitlet om Frankrike i Men størst av alt er friheten. Innvandringens konsekvenser, rant tårene. Kapitlet ”Seksuelle overgrep er gjort til en banalitet” (her i pdf), beskriver forhold for jenter og unge kvinner i de betydelige franske gettoene som er så dramatiske at det knapt var til å ta innover seg, særlig voldtektene, og også æresdrap. Jeg fikk en klar fornemmelse av at den dramatiske utviklingen i gettoene var et signal om et tapt integreringsprosjekt som kunne få uante katastrofale følger – både for de enkelte individene, og for den franske staten på sikt.
Som kjent tidligere i år, skal Frankrike satse betydelig på integrering, rapportert på rights.no Også den gang handlet det om islams dominerende innflytelse. Med den nye rapporten fra to sentrale gettoer nordøst i Paris-regionen, ”Republikkens forsteder” har regjeringen fått en kraftig påminnelse om at problemene er så omfattende at tiltakene som trengs for å reintegrere gettoene inn i det franske samfunnet, ikke bare vil måtte være av svært kraftig lut, men at vi antakelig snakker om et tidsperspektiv på minst en generasjon (30 år), for å lykkes. Gettoene har utviklet seg til å bli ”separate islamske stater”. I høyt tempo erstatter sharia franske lov.
France’s decrepit city suburbs are becoming ‘separate Islamic societies’ cut off from the state, according to a major new study that examines the spread of Islam in France.
Muslim immigrants are increasingly rejecting French values and identity and instead are immersing themselves in Islam, according to the report, which also warns that Islamic Sharia law is rapidly displacing French civil law in many parts of suburban Paris.
The 2,200-page report, «Banlieue de la République» (Suburbs of the Republic), is the result of a one-year research effort into the four «i’s» that comprise the heart of the debate over French national identity: Islam, immigration, identity and insecurity.
Rapportens forfattere sier at Frankrike star på randen av en betydelig sosial eksplosjon grunnet mangel på integrering av muslimer. Ikke uventet heter det også at religiøse ledere agiterer for sosial marginalisering for slik å kunne innføre sharia.
The report was commissioned by the influential French think tank L’Institut Montaigne, and directed by Gilles Kepel, a well-known political scientist and specialist in the Muslim world, together with five other French researchers.
The authors of the report show that France, which has between five and six million Muslims (France has the largest Muslim population in European Union), is on the brink of a major social explosion because of the failure of Muslims to integrate into French society.
The report also shows how the problem is being exacerbated by radical Muslim leaders who are promoting the social marginalization of Muslim immigrants in order to create a parallel Muslim society in France that is ruled by Sharia law.
The research was primarily carried out in Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil, two suburbs in north-eastern Paris that were ground zero for Muslim riots in 2005. Clichy and Montfermeil form part of the district of Seine-Saint-Denis, which has one of the highest concentrations of Muslims in France.
Seine-Saint-Denis, which the report describes as a «wasteland of de-industrialization,» is home to more than 600,000 Muslims (primarily from North and West Africa) out of a total population of 1.4 million.
«In some areas, a third of the population of the town does not hold French nationality, and many residents are drawn to an Islamic identity,» the report says.
En myte som har hatt gode kår i Frankrike er at republikken alltid vil klare å integrere innvandrere. Selvtilliten har overstyrt realisme. Men hva gjør man når folk faktisk ikke ønsker å bli integrert? Som at man avviser ekteskap med ”utenforstående”.
The survey also points to differing social attitudes when it comes to marriage, for example. The report says that although most people in France do not object to mixed marriages, «in the suburbs we were surprised to find a very large proportion of Muslim respondents who said they were opposed to marriages with non-Muslims.»
The researchers also looked into the reasons behind the 2005 riots, which they said had called into question modern France’s founding myth, namely «the implicit shared belief that the nation was always able to integrate people.»
Islamic values are replacing those of a French Republic which has failed to deliver on its promise of «equality,» the report says, and the residents of the suburbs increasingly do not see themselves as French.
But the report adds that the French state is not primarily to blame for this and that many Muslim immigrants simply do not want to integrate into French society.
Det interessante for oss i Norge er ikke minst at de franske myndighetene har satset på renovering av de to nevnte gettoene, slik vi satser på opprustning i Groruddalen. Men fasadepussing og bedret infrastruktur har ikke løst noen problem. Hvorfor? Fordi utdannelsesnivået er så lavt. I de to nevnte gettoene faller 150 000 ut av utdannelsessystemet årlig. 43 prosent av de unge er uten arbeid. De er ikke ”arbeidsegnede”, heter det.
The report points out that the suburbs of Clichy and Montfermeil have been at the center of one of France’s biggest urban renewal projects. Many physical barriers to integration have been removed, and efforts have been made to plug the area into public transport networks and improve public safety.
Nevertheless, low educational achievement is endemic among the Muslim population. This, in turn, is turning France into a «divided nation.» Most Muslim youth are «not employable.» More than 20% of the residents of Clichy and Montfermeil leave school without a diploma (about 150,000 people per year), according to the report. The unemployment rate for Muslim youth in the suburbs of Paris is around 43%.
These drop-outs enter a cycle of social exclusion negatively shapes their lives and those of their children. Many Muslim youth turn to «deviant behaviors across the range of incivilities in a parallel economy in which drug trafficking is the most prominent.»
Rapportforfatterne er slått av utviklingen knyttet til halal (lovlig) og haram (ulovlig). Man har tidligere forbundet begrepene med matvarer. Begrepene gjennomsyrer nå også sosial adferd, språklige uttrykk med mer. Ikke underlig ser man også en oppblomstring av moskeer og bederom.
Islam is filling the void. The authors of the study are taken aback at the explosion of the halal market in France in recent years and also point out that the term halal has been greatly expanded in its definition. The survey question «do you respect the halal?» highlights the «complexity of different meanings of the word, which in its most restrictive sense means only the dimension of the forbidden food, but may also include a code of conduct, standards and an expression of dominant values, separating the ‘halal’ from ‘haram,’ the lawful or unlawful in many aspects of society.»
The report also describes a proliferation of mosques and prayer rooms in the suburbs. The religious orientations of the mosques are heavily influenced by the national origin of the founder or president of a given mosque.
Majoriteten av de rundt 2 100 registrerte moskeene i Frankrike er tett knyttet til Det muslimske Brorskapet. Moskeer og organisasjoner jobber målrettet for å spre islamsk lov, og ved lokalvalg mobiliseres muslimer til å stemme på kandidater som fremmer islamske spørsmål. Rapportens barske konklusjon er at “Frankrikes fremtid avhenger av landets evne til å reintegrere forstedene i det nasjonale prosjektet”.
Den franske paraplyorgansiasjonen for muslimske trossamfunn, UIOF, har som mål å (rundt 2 100 moskeer er registrerte), Islam in Clichy-Montfermeil is structured around two major poles: one pole involves the Tabligh («spreading of Islam») movement which is focused on «re-socializing» Muslims on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder.
The Tabligh movement arrived in Clichy-Montfermeil in the 1980s in the midst of mass unemployment and drugs. Tabligh preachers built their social legitimacy by providing a moral regeneration of young people in distress around a rigorous practice of the precepts of Islam.
The other pole revolves around the figure of the Tunisian imam Dhaou Meskine, who was involved in the launch of Union of Islamic Organizations in France (UIOF). The UOIF, which represents the majority of the 2,100 registered mosques in France, is closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, which aims to extend Islamic law throughout France.
Meskine also participated in the formation of the Union of Muslim Associations (UAM93), a Muslim lobby group that aims to mobilize Muslims to elect candidates in local elections around Islamic issues. UAM93 has been pushing for the construction of a mega-mosque in Seine-Saint-Denis, although that project has run into difficulties due to a power struggle between Algerian, Moroccan and Turkish immigrants.
The report describes a «new sociology of Muslim believers» that is composed mainly of undereducated low-income immigrants who depend on financial support from Morocco or Turkey, countries that are pursuing their own objectives in France.
The authors of the study also point to a contradiction among Muslims who live in the suburbs: they do not want the French state to interfere in matters relating to Islam, but they also expect the state to improve their lot in life.
Det er mer enn et tankekors at Norges regjering, anført av Audun Lysbakken, skal satses på diskriminering (”hvit diskriminerer svart”) som det sentrale integreringsverktøyet. Det kan komme til å koste dyrt på sikt, sosialt og økonomisk.