by Dr. Tsilla Hershco
The French leadership has failed to cope with the uncontrolled Islamist radicalization as it is not politically correct to intervene in religious matters.
Montage of Islamist attacks in Paris in 2015, via Wikipedia
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 967, October 5, 2018
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The lack of integration
into France of many Muslims over a long period, combined with severe
socioeconomic problems, has produced bitterness, alienation, and fertile
ground for radical imams who use the French separation between state
and religion (Laïcité) to promote uncontrolled Islamist
radicalization. The French leadership has failed to cope with these
problems as it is not politically correct to intervene in religious
matters. The ISIS terrorist attacks, perpetrated by radicalized French
Muslims, brought the issues to the center of the public discourse.
President Macron embraced many of his predecessor’s counterterrorism
measures and moved further with ambitious de-radicalization plans
designed to address the core problems, including mounting suburban
crime. However, increasing Muslim radicalization, as well as a growing
left-right polarization regarding the ways to tackle the problem, still
present serious challenges to the French republican order.
French president Emmanuel Macron, in a major
policy address at the August annual French ambassadors’ conference,
reiterated that the fight against Islamist terrorism is his top priority
goal. During his presidential campaign and soon after his election,
Macron underlined that his main objectives – alongside his social and
economic platform – were to ensure security within France and to fight
Islamist terrorism as a central pillar of his foreign policy.
Macron inherited the complicated problem of Muslim
radicalization, which for years had been either swept entirely under
the carpet or inefficiently dealt with. Initially, the problem relates
to the lack of integration into the French society and economy of
numerous second- and third-generation French Muslims of North African
descent who live mainly in the suburbs around Paris and other cities in
France (they are estimated to number between six and eight million).
Many years of unsolved socioeconomic problems such as high unemployment
(especially among young people), poverty, poor housing, and low-level
schools produced a vicious circle of high crime rates, resentment, and
alienation on the one hand and growing discrimination towards Muslims in
French society on the other.
Additionally, radical imams from abroad who
provide religious services in France have taken advantage of the French
law of separation between state and religion (Laïcité) to
promote uncontrolled radical Islam. Radical imams have also provided
religious services to Muslim prisoners, leading to their radicalization.
Indeed, many perpetrators of terrorist acts, such as those of Toulouse
in 2012, Paris in 2015, Nice in 2016, and Trebes in 2018, were criminals
who had undergone radicalization in French prisons.
From time to time, this complicated problem has
exploded in mass riots, accompanied by violent confrontations with
police and the burning of public and private property. The most
challenging riots (in October 2005) lasted about three weeks and were
followed by President Chirac’s declaration of a state of emergency.
Geostrategic factors – particularly the so-called
“Arab spring,” the Syrian civil war, and the strengthening of ISIS –
also contributed to the radicalization process. Radical Islamist
internet messages encouraged young Muslims and non-Muslims to join the
ranks of ISIS, or detailed how to carry out terrorist attacks. Hundreds
of French Muslims joined ISIS and became security threats upon their
return to France.
Growing Muslim radicalization has also been
reflected in the increasing number of incidents of violent anti-Semitism
in France. The French authorities and media preferred, at first, to
view the crimes as stemming from socioeconomic factors rather than from
Islamic radicalization. They occasionally presented or even justified
the increase in anti-Semitic violence as a product of the Muslims’
identification with the Palestinians. It seems that the Laïcité
principle created a barrier that prevented an examination into the
intensification of anti-Semitic violence as a result of radicalization
and religious incitement.
Even when the French political leadership became
aware of the problem of radicalization, it did not sufficiently
internalize the threat. France passed laws banning the carrying of
religious symbols by Christians, Jews, and Muslims in French schools
(2004) and prohibiting women from hiding their faces behind the Muslim
burqa while in the public sphere (2011). These laws sparked debates in
France about their legality and effectiveness while also stoking
bitterness among Muslims.
The appalling ISIS terrorist attacks of 2015-17
caused deep shock due to their frequency, their scope in terms of
casualties, and their disruption of citizens’ sense of security. The
shock was particularly severe as the perpetrators were French citizens
who had undergone a process of radicalization and carried out acts of
terror by joining ISIS or identifying with it. The terrorist attacks
opened a Pandora’s Box and brought the problem to the epicenter of
French public discourse.
However, even after the terrible attacks of
January and November 2015, President Hollande’s messages to the nation
continued to reflect a politically correct attitude. In accordance with
the Laïcité principle and in order to prevent the
stigmatization of the Muslim community, he refrained from explicitly
naming Islamists as the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks as well as
of the increasing anti-Semitic violence.
Hollande’s politically correct messages were at a
dissonance with the reality in which Muslims, particularly young ones,
defiantly expressed their religious identity as standing above their
allegiance to the French republic and its values. For instance, Muslim
pupils in French public schools refused to respect a nationwide moment
of silence in memory of the victims of the “Charlie Hebdo” terror attack
in January 2015. They reportedly said the terrorist act constituted
justifiable vengeance, as the satirical magazine had published
caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. This shocked the French public,
which viewed the attack on the Charlie Hebdo office as an attack on
freedom of speech – one of France’s central republican values.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls deviated, to some
extent, from Hollande’s politically correct discourse. He spoke of a new
type of anti-Semitism in France, created in the suburbs and driven by
hatred of Israel. Moreover, he stressed critically that people refrained
from overtly condemning radical Muslims for fear of being charged with
racism and “Islamophobia,” and that fear prevented an open public
debate.
Concurrently with Holland’s politically correct
discourse, he approved several counterterrorism measures, such as
allocating budgets for increasing the number of counterterrorism agents
as well as boosting intelligence gathering units designated to monitor
and curb jihadists. In addition, he announced the formation of a
military force of 10,000 soldiers and 4,500 policemen and gendarmes
(Operation Sentinelle) to protect “sensitive” points in France from
terror attacks.
Following the “Black Friday” Islamist assaults in
November 2015, Hollande decreed a state of emergency, which allowed the
French security powers to (inter alia) carry out preventive
arrests of suspects, conduct massive raids without a judge’s warrant,
ban demonstrations, and close websites considered to pose a danger to
public order. Hollande also proposed tougher measures such as expelling
foreigners viewed as security threats, rescinding French nationality
from dual nationals implicated in terror activities, introducing greater
state involvement in the training and appointment of imams, and making
emergency laws part of the constitution. However, Hollande withdrew from
most of these tougher proposals because of protests by civil rights
supporters.
Hollande later unveiled an extensive plan to fight
delinquency and radicalization in order to strengthen the republic’s
values among pupils in the suburbs. In May 2016, the government created
an inter-ministerial committee for the prevention of delinquency and
radicalization (CIPDR). At the end of September 2016, an experimental
center was set up in Pontourni, in central France, aimed at the
de-radicalization of young Muslims who had expressed a desire to join
ISIS. The center, which was supposed to serve as a model for additional
centers, was closed several months later, due in part to the small
number of participants and in part to the opposition of local residents.
It should be noted that the security services and
general intelligence services have increased their alertness with regard
to outward signs of radicalization. For instance, they wrote a report
in 2015 stating that fitness clubs are a magnet for radicalized Muslims
as part of their training for terrorist acts. However, it was not until
2017 that they organized sessions for educators and social workers to
teach them to recognize signs of radicalization such as beard-growing or
changes of lifestyle.
The terrorist attacks, combined with the
deteriorating economic situation involving high unemployment and a large
public deficit, led to a massive drop in Hollande’s public support.
Conversely, the attacks increased support for the far right in France.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front party (FN), demanded
that the authorities clearly pronounce the connection between Islamists
and terrorist acts, that all religious activities be banned from the
public sphere, that radical imams be expelled, and that Muslim
immigration to France be stopped. Le Pen also demanded that the Schengen
agreements be annulled, arguing that a closure of the borders would
prevent illegal immigration to France. Le Pen’s views on Islamic
radicalism and immigration increased her popularity, and for the first
time, the FN representative reached the final stage of the presidential
elections.
In May 2017, Emanuel Macron was elected president.
He managed this by winning the support of a large proportion of the
public that did not necessarily support him but wished to prevent Le
Pen’s election. At his inauguration, Macron used symbolic gestures to
manifest the importance he attached to the fight against terrorism. For
instance, on his way from the Elysees Palace to the traditional ceremony
at the Arc de Triomphe, he stopped to pay tribute to the memory of the
policeman shot dead by French Islamists in April 2017. In addition, one
of his first trips outside France as president was a visit to French
troops stationed in Mali to fight terrorism.
Macron also unveiled plans for numerous
counterterrorism policy measures, such as increasing the security
forces, enforcing the expulsion of migrant workers, initiating
educational programs for de-radicalization, and allocating budgets for
the suburbs. Additionally, he announced the creation of a national
center for counterterrorism, located at the Elysees Palace and operating
under his command. The center, which operates 24 hours a day, unites
internal and external intelligence services and monitors and coordinates
all activities in the war on terror. Macron proposed a return to
community policing in order to improve relations between the police and
young people of the suburbs. Concurrently, he revived legislation that
enshrines counterterrorism laws in the constitution. The French
parliament voted with a significant majority in support of the law,
which replaces the state of emergency.
Parliament members introduced amendments to the
initial bill, according to which all the new measures will expire at the
end of 2020. Civil rights groups criticized the law anyway, claiming
that it will be used mainly against Muslims.
In February 2018, Prime Minister Edward Phillip
unveiled a comprehensive plan to fight Islamist radicalism. It includes
several key components, such as detection and prevention of
radicalization in the education system and in prisons, interdisciplinary
and inter-ministerial cooperation, professional specialization in the
subject of radicalization, increases in financial and personnel
resources, and collaboration and exchange of information among security
authorities in the various French regions.
Macron also proposed replacing the traditional
model “Muslims in France,” which implies non-governmental involvement,
with the model “Islam of France,” which implies the shaping of a
moderate Islam that adapts itself to French republican values and
rejects the Islamist radical version of Islam. In this context, France
has already promoted a university program for French imams that trains
them, among other things, in French law. The program has not fulfilled
its goal in terms of the number of participants. Many imams still
receive their training and accreditation in Arab countries.
Liberal circles sharply criticized Macron’s plans,
arguing that they do not conform to French liberal values, that they
violate French republican laws of non-interference in religious affairs,
that they contradict citizens’ freedom of religion, and that the French
authorities use terrorist attacks to promote a nationalist agenda.
Conversely, far-right circles persist in their arguments that Muslims in
France present an inherent danger to the French republic as they do not
wish to integrate but to impose sharia law over French secular law, as
their values and way of life contradict the values of the republic. They
also criticize French authorities for their weakness in confronting
these threats.
Another criticism has surfaced regarding Macron’s
policy towards illegal immigrants in France. Macron emphasized that
uncontrolled illegal immigration is a security problem as well as a
burden on the budget of the French Republic. The interior minister
Gérard Collomb accordingly ordered that immigrants in
public shelters be registered and checked whether they are asylum
seekers or migrant workers, who are liable to be expelled. However,
intellectuals, opposition journalists, and social associations appealed
to the Council of State (Conseil d’Etat), which advises the
government on legal and administrative matters, to cancel the order on
the grounds that it is inhumane and illegal. In January 2018, the news
weekly Nouvel Observateur published a provocative photo of
Macron covered with barbed wire to illustrate its criticism of what it
considers to be his inhumane attitude towards immigrants. Macron
responded with a sharp message, stressing the need to be humane as well
as effective and to be careful with “false good sentiments.” He also
noted that France had given entry permits to 100,000 refugees,
maintaining international humanitarian law. Far-right circles and
particularly Le Pen continue to loudly oppose any additional Muslim
immigration to France.
The growing right-left polarization regarding the
ways to tackle these complicated problems increases the difficulties of
the French authorities in shaping and promoting effective
counterterrorist and de-radicalization policy. The numerous
counterterrorism and de-radicalization measures embraced by President
Macron and by his predecessor through trial and error have not yet
effectively addressed the root problems that have bred Islamist
radicalization and increasing anti-Semitic violence. Furthermore,
surveys indicate an increase in the process of radicalization of Muslims
in France and its expansion in French republican schools, including
among teachers. Patrick Calvar, head of the Internal Security Agency
(DGSI, or General Directorate for Internal Security) reportedly warned
in June 2016 that additional terror attacks might ignite revenge attacks
by right-wing circles against Muslims and lead to confrontation with
Muslims. Calvar’s warning took on a more ominous significance when in
June 2018 the French police arrested a radical right-wing group that
planned to attack radical imams, radicalized ex-prisoners, and veiled
Muslim women.
France has come a long way in its fight against
Islamist terrorism. However, the unsolved core issues of increasing
Muslim radicalization and the deteriorating socio-economic conditions in
the “no-go” suburbs, combined with the growing left-right polarization
regarding how to tackle the problem, still present serious challenges to
the French republican order.
BESA Center Perspectives Papers are published through the generosity of the Greg Rosshandler Family
Dr. Tsilla Hershco, a senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, specializes in Franco-Israeli and EU-Israeli relations.
Source: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/frances-fight-against-islamic-radicalization-the-writing-is-still-on-the-wall/
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