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21.11.2005

On Muslim riots in France

   

Gagik Ter-Harutyunyan 

Mass disturbances organized by Muslims have been continuing in France and its neighbor countries for over a long period of time. In spite of the fact that the French government has declared state of emergency, the disturbances (which have already included Belgium and Germany) don’t seem to calm down. The incident will still remind about itself for a long time: only in economy the French incurred billions in losses, the exchange-value of euro continues to fall; the political forecasts are not favorable too. The developments give a precise idea about what may happen in Europe if the Muslims form 20-30 % of its population. In this sense a special attention should be paid on the utopian work of a prose writer Yelena Chudinova “The mosque of Notre Dame de Paris” where we can follow the developments of 2048, the European Union has changed into the Euroislam, and the French who don’t want to accept this religion constituting the minority are confined to ghettoes.

The happenings in Europe have their objective reasons. The existence of Muslim element in Europe is conditioned by the demand of cheap labour. As a result, today the Muslim community in France is in the second place after the Catholics and exceeds the number of Protestants and the official data of general number of Muslims in that country is 5 million: 800 of them are Algerians, 1 million are from Morocco and Tunisia, 350 thousands are Turks, etc. By unofficial data the number of Muslims reaches up to 10 million. There are 1500 mosques and 2000 Islamic organizations in the country, which have an influential role not only in Islamite communities. As a result of Islam propaganda even French-Christians are proselytized.

It is known that the Muslims represent the society’s needy strata, where the social tension is traditionally high. However besides the social factors the interethnic hostility must also be taken into account. The French society by itself shouldn’t be idealized as well, a part of which quite sharply expresses its decline to racial discrimination and religious intolerance (anti-Semitism is also spread in this country). At the same time it is difficult to characterize the happenings of the last week as a spontaneous revolt conditioned by social neediness and religious and ethnic intolerance.

The mode of actions adopted by today’s European Muslims has come to prove that “the revolts” are realized by methods peculiar to terroristic organizations: the instigator groups move about very quickly, employ “stinging” guerrilla tactics, they get instructions of operations through internet, the organizational principles are network-based, etc. Let’s point out that in the past the Muslim criminal element also had tough clashes with police, however these clashes have never led to mass actions and political and economic hard consequences. All these let us think that it is not inconceivable that the happenings in France and other European countries may be provoked or at the course of events were already directed by other forces.

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While analyzing any political development it is advisable to single out the actors who can or for some reason aim to realize this or that action. From this standpoint, as the organizers of Muslim youth riots or their supporters and inspirators, in the first place are international Islamic terroristic centers which undoubtedly have their structures in European communities.

It is considered that the main aim of Islamic extremists is the struggle against “unbelieving” West (especially the USA), “satanic” Israel and the creation of world Caliphate. It’s possible that in that case France may become a target for radical Islamists and the discussed developments may be regarded as “demonstration of strength and potentialities” by their part. Here must be also considered the discontent in Islamic community as a result of the prohibition to wear kerchiefs (hegabs) in French schools. However it seems that the French disagreement with American policy in Iraq somehow (but not completely) secured it from the terroristic attacks. It can be accepted that the rioters were organized Islamic extremists. Who wants to develop the ongoing riots is another problem.

The supporters and instigators of the Islamic riot may be the special services of the countries struggling against global terrorism which may have leverage of influence in terroristic structures based upon the specificity of their work.

If we also take into consideration the motive of vengeance, Turkey is among these countries. France is one of the main adversaries of Turkey’s acceptance in the EU, and the Erdoghan’s recent declaration in connection with riots on underestimation of Islamic factor may be commented as a reproach to French authorities. However according to informational flow the rioters are not the Turks (who are traditionally connected with Turkey’s security services), they are more likely to be Arabs from South African countries.

In the context of French developments the special services of the USA, Great Britain and Israel deserve special attention. They often make common cause with each other; they undoubtedly have all the necessary resources and one would think the incentives as well. It is known that being the permanent member of UN Security council, France is the Western power continuously opposing to the policy of the US and its close allies- Great Britain and Israel on the ground of “anti-terroristic war” and Iraqi problem. According to French, combating terrorism only by means of force has not political prospective. France is also the main ideologist of Europe-centered and not Atlantic EU. In this context there is a version that it is advantageous for the US to deprive France from the arguments against the American global anti-terroristic strategy: in this context mass disturbances seem to be favorable for America. On the ground of the above mentioned the following information deserves special attention.

According to “Human Rights Watch” American famous right protecting organization’s information the US special structures have made a net of secret prisons especially in Poland and Romania where the Americans interrogate the arrested terrorists (among these countries is also named Azerbaijan). The published information is based on the summer analyses of the documents of planes taking special flights from Afghanistan to Europe. It is characteristic that the American government neither affirms nor refutes these accusations and the announcements of the Europeans disproving this information are still unsubstantiated and don’t seem to be convincing.

It is significant that in parallel with the above mentioned massages the US vice-president Dick Cheney has appealed to Senate to allow special services to subject the terrorists to tortures while interrogating them. The declaration of Cheney may be considered to be an attempt to legitimate the existing reality in these prisons. The facts on subjecting tortures in Iraqi prisons and Guantanamo concentration camp are more then enough.

Let’s also remember that at the beginning the Americans did everything in their power to locate the arrested terrorists outside US borders (for example in the same Guantanamo) thus aiming not to fall under American legal regulations. So, we can state as a fact that the arrested terrorists are tortured physically and psychologically which in principle allows not only extort the necessary information but also “break” and recruit the interrogated ones. The above mentioned facts let us think that the US and its ally countries are able not only to struggle against the terrorists but also recruit them and use in special operations which may be directed against France as well. Such an approach corresponds to the special services’ logic of action. According to a number of analytical versions the terroristic action on September 11, 2001 with the well known consequences was also the result of the double standard technology. In its time such methods were applied by Russian Czar’s “okhranka” and Soviet KGB, it is well known numerous instigating actions of British and Israeli special services. In general, it must be stated as a fact that in any important political event the special services must have their “mite”.

In any case it can be stated that whoever are the organizers and supporters of European riots they have achieved their object: today French authorities, their political anti-terroristic strategy are defamed and the allurement of that country has been considerably reduced. The distrust to the EU leader is projected to the EU and, further to Euroconstitution failure, to all-European ideas. All these must make French adopted anti-Atlantic policy “smoother”.

At the same time all these give cause for thinking over the future demographical changes in Europe which will have its influence not only on the EU but also on the national security of its “new neighbors”.


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