the french suburban house and field negro

7/30/2019 The French Suburban House and Field Negro

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The French Suburban House and Field Negro

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In the aftermath of 9/11, Muslims all over the world came to realize that they have been the real

victims of international terror attacks. If Osama Ben Laden really was behind the September

attacks he definitely had caused more harm to his own ummah then he had to the West. Muslims

today feel targeted when displaying their religion, especially when it comes to practicing the

Sunnah1. In doing so, they become subjected to a "guilty until proven innocent" policy and are

expected to justify themselves for the crimes of a few nut heads who happen to have the same

religion. Thousands of innocent Muslims, including journalists, found themselves behind bars,

and torture increased worldwide due to some ridiculous anti-terror law. Organizations like Al

Qaida have rolled out the red carpet to the West welcoming a new kind of colonization into the

Middle East with US invasions tearing up Muslim countries with a 6000 year old history, costing

the lives of thousands of innocent civilians. Americans greatly benefited from their newlyinstalled oil plants, Muslims only saw blood and humiliation. Another international post-9/11

phenomena is that Islamic dress is being repressed, by which Muslims undergo a new

widespread form of religious discrimination, whether it be in the West or in Muslim countries. It

seems everything has become permissible in this never ending war on terrorism, whether this

war is fought out by American troops, US sponsored Arab governments or by major

broadcasting companies in renewed assaults of ideological warfare against everything that smells

Islamic. The world is rife with anti-Islamic sentiments and the international fight against Islamic

terror echoes throughout the streets of European suburbs.

Ever since it has been colonizing Muslim countries, France has never been able to cope with theMuslim population. When in 1963 Algeria, Frances colonie chrie, was given back to its

people, many thought it to be the end of French colonization- but it wasnt. It continued in a

more subtle way. It changed from being physical and territorial activity to being a mental and

cultural conquest. Instead of conquering natural resources abroad, it now tries to occupy the

hearts and minds of the children of immigrants that came from the old colonies. France

stubbornly persists in its attempts to force western norms on their Arab and other minorities,

kneading and muddling up their culture and religion, trying to make it as French as possible. The

feeling of superiority they had towards the Arab in the days of French colonization has never

really disappeared, hence maintaining the colonial culture that lead to todays second class

treatment of French Muslim citizens.

French politicians have always strongly insisted on the fact that Muslims and Arabs in their

country need to integrate. However, the term integration has never been clearly defined and it is

understood in different ways. If integration would mean that people of foreign cultures are to

1 The prophetic traditions that comprise the acts, words, silent affirmations and characteristics of the prophet

Mohammed


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comply with French laws, than this would suggest that obeying state laws is alien to these

foreign cultures and their demand for integration could then be considered a racist statement. It

would also imply that all French people whose parents were born in France should from now on

be asked to integrate. No, what really is meant with the term integration is adopting Western

values, as became clear in 2003 when a new bill required immigrants who applied for French

residence to sign a contract of integration enjoining on them respecting the Republican laws and

values. Muslim citizens are expected to obey unwritten laws of forced cultural assimilation, and

this has lead Muslim youth in French suburbs to adopt a different approach in dealing with their

intolerant society. Some of them totally merged with French culture, others took it back to their

Islamic roots in which they found new pride and strong identity. These two opposite ways of

reacting to discrimination isnt new and was already noticed in the time of American Slavery.

Throughout time, a submissive mentality has always faced the revolutionary way of thinking.

House vs. Field Negros

On November 9th,

1963, Malcolm X gave his Message to the Grass roots, a speech in which

he described the two different kinds of slaves living in 18th

century oppressive, cruel America. X

looked back at the history of slavery and found striking resemblances between what he called

Negro slaves and the African-American people of the 20th

century. This is how he portrayed this

fascinating duality within the slave community:

Back during slavery there was two kinds of slaves, two kinds of Negros. There was the house

Negro and the field Negro, the house Negro always looked out for his master. When the field

Negros got too much out of line he held them back in check, he put them back on the plantation.

The house Negro could afford to do this because he lived better than the field Negro, he atebetter, he dressed better and he lived in a better house, he lived in the house of his master in the

attic or the basement, he ate the same food his master ate and wore his same clothes and he

could talk just like his master, good diction. And he loved his master more than the master loved

himself. That is why he didnt want his master hurt. If the master got sick, the house Negro would

say: "What's the matter, boss, we sick?" We sick! He identified himself with his master more than

his master identified with himself. If the master's house caught on fire, the house Negro would

fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. They would give their life to save the

master's house quicker than the master would. But then you got some field Negros who lived in a

hut, they had nothing to lose. They wore the worst kind of clothes, they ate the worst food and

they caught hell, they felt the sting of the lash. The field Negro hated his master. I say he hated

his master. He was intelligent. If the master got sick he prayed that the master died. If the

masters house caught on fire he prayed for a strong wind to come along. This was the difference

between the two. And today you still have house Negroes and field NegrosI am a field Negro!

Malcolm X was right; today you still have house and field Negros, and the dichotomy between

both types of slaves during slavery cannot only be compared to the differences in todays Afro-


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American community but also reflects on Muslims in suburbs of major Western European cities,

like Amsterdam and Paris. This distinction in reaction to oppression can clearly be noticed in

France within its Muslim community. Conscious of the religious and social injustice, French

Muslim youth have all developed a different mentality in coping with their situation, and have

fallen into opposites that dont attract. The House Negro Mentality could be found in the French

Ikhwan Muslimoun (the French Brotherhood Muslims) who exert all effort to become model

French citizens, often entirely assimilating into the French culture and leaving the suburbs to

achieve higher status within French society, in this way hoping to receive some equal treatment.

The typical Ikhwani is represented as being the clean shaven Arab dressed in suit and tie thinking

his social disguise will grant him freedom by his French Sayyid. On the other hand you have the

Salafis who mainly live in HLM buildings, the modern equivalent to the huts their old field

Negro brothers used to live in. They are not trying to look or sound French, they dont dress

French, nor do they care about what France expects from them. They realize that being in France

or being born in France doesnt mean youre French. It isnt the dark red passport that makes you

French, what makes you French is your state of mind. Salafis refuse to play the oui bono game,they have a flowing beard and dress nicely in Islamic robes2. The Salafi finds pride in all aspects

of Islam, whereas his Ikhwani brother is ashamed of the Islamic rules and principles that go

against western values.

Ethnologically, the Afro-American and the European-Arab have a lot in common. Although

Arab immigrants left their countries out of free will, they were accepted in the European

continent according to the roughness of their palms and fingers3. The first black slaves had been

selected according to their physical strength and were kidnapped from the African continent and

put onto slave ships. French colonization was far from being as brutal and destructive as

American slavery, but the comparison still holds, since both African slaves and Arab immigrantshave been brought into prosperous promised lands to build up a country and boost its local

economy. After World War II Muslims were invited into the European host-countries to do the

dirty work Europeans didnt want to do, thus resolving their mass problem of labor shortage.

The coal mines and car manufacturing plants have replaced the cotton fields, Kunta Kinte is now

called Monsieur Momo and the metal shackles of the slaves have become mental ones the

Western Arab cant get rid of. In America it all had to do with color; in France the problem is

socio-religious. French converts who dress according to Islam are being discriminated against in

the same way their Arab brothers are. And a clean shaven Mohamed in tight jeans will have a

better chance of finding a good job than his brother Jacques who embraced Islam and now has a

full-grown beard and white turban.

Salafis have become Frances most disturbing problem, and have come under great scrutiny by

French media that is trying by all means to describe this new social being. One of those attempts

2Many of this is based on the verse in Sourah Al Baqara: The Jews and Christians won't be pleased with you until

you follow their religion3 This was a way to know whether the person was used to hard work; people with soft inner hands were rejected


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was made by a proponent of the French Ikhwan Muslimoun movement (Muslim Brotherhood)

named Mohamed-Ali Adraoui, who in his article Purist Salafism in France4

has laid down the

Ikhwani analyses of Salafism. In it he mentioned that, according to Purist Salafis, human beings

are created for a strict religious purpose: obeying Allah and following His moral and judicial

commands. This clearly proves Mr. Adraouis unacquaintedness with Islam and raises the

question whether he has ever read the Quran in which it is clearly mentioned in many verses that

Allah has created men for the single purpose of worshiping their creator. All scholars of Islam

and all Muslims in all times, whether they belong to a sect or not, have this belief; which, by the

way, is fully comprised in the first pillar of Islam. Limiting this conviction to the Salafis is

something quite strange. But what Mr. Adraoui is attempting to say is that Salafis are missing out

or abandoning some aspects of life by focusing on religion. This is a clear distortion and

nonevidenced restriction of the meaning of tawheed5, since all forms of adoration in Islam are

social-oriented aspects which reach far beyond the scope of individual obedience. And this is

something the Ikhwani has not grasped.

Mohamed Adraoui seems to have an inferiority complex when describing Salafis, about whom

he said that, Allah chose them to be the taifa el mansoura, in reference to the hadith that

Muslims will divide into seventy three factions, all of which will end in hell except for the one

Allah saves. First of all the hadith doesnt mean that all Muslims of the 72 sects will go to hell

nor does it mean that all Muslims who didnt adhere to a sect will go straight to paradise. Just a

little research in the explanation of the hadith would have been enough to understand its

meaning. He then states that the saved group are those that stayed faithful in the face of

temptations. Again this proves that Adraoui has not even read the hadith he is talking about6.

The Muslims of the saved group are those who will stay upon Islam the way the prophet and his

companions did, meaning those who dont adhere to any sect and dont innovate in religion byadding new principles into the creed. By claiming to be Salafi, one declares not to be part of any

sect. This is a central idea of Salafism, since the prophet has forbidden his community to join

sects7.

Islamic sects are easily recognizable because they all have a founder and believe in principles of

creed which cant be found in the Quran or prophetic Sunnah. The founding father of Shi-ism

was Abdullah Ibn Saba, the Tablighi sect was founded by Mohamed Ilyas, the Muslim

Brotherhood by Hassan El Banna8 and todays Khawaridj are the descendants of Dhoul

Khouweysira Attameemy.

4 See ISIM Review 21 (http://www.isim.nl/files/review_21/review_21-12.pdf)5 Singling out Allah in all affairs of worship, asserting that there is no god that deserves to be worshipped exceptAllah6The hadith has been reported by 13 of the prophets companions in several Sunan-books and is not at all contested7 The prophet has, in many hadiths forbidden to adhere to sects, the most famous one is the hadith reported by

Hudheyfa Ibnoul Yaman in Sahih El Bukhari (#3606)8 Hassan El Banna (1906-1949) founded the Society of Muslim Brothers in Egypt in 1928
http://www.isim.nl/files/review_21/review_21-12.pdfhttp://www.isim.nl/files/review_21/review_21-12.pdf


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Adraoui then expressed that many Salafis think they form that only group destined for eternal

salvation, because they have resisted the allure of new gods such as money, democracy, or

secularism." These again are tremendous misconceptions. Believing in "new gods" is not

something that makes you part of the 72 groups, on the contrary it takes you out of each and

every Islamic group and sect because worshipping another god with or besides Allah takes you

out of the fold of Islam. The second point is that the reason why these groups have become sects

is not because they love money or are committing physical sins. The breaking off of sects from

original Islam is primary due to religious matters, not worldly matters. All sects in Islam

descend from four mother sects: the Khawaridj, the Rafidhah, the Jahmeeyah and the

Qadareeyah. But it is also incorrect in regard to the modern groups like Jihadees, Tablighis,

Ikhwanis, and extreme Sufis. They do not belong to the seventy two sects because they accepted

the "new gods such as money, democracy, or secularism but because of ideological innovation

in their religion. Mr. Adraoui is juggling apples and oranges and calling them mangoes!

Hijra, the Escape to Freedom

Back in the days of slavery when black field slaves in the Deep South were plucking white

cotton under a burning sun, they only dreamt of one thing: freedom. This wasnt the case for the

house slave, who was satisfied with the life he led under his slave master and wasnt thinking

about escaping the plantation. Fleeing to freedom was also a major topic Malcolm X brought up

in his same speech:

The modern house Negro loves his master. He wants to live near him. He'll pay three times as

much as the house is worth just to live near his master, and then brag about "I'm the only Negroout here." "I'm the only one on my job." "I'm the only one in this school." You're nothing but a

house Negro.If someone came to the field Negro and said, "Let's separate, let's run," he didn't

say, "Where we going?" He'd say, "Any place is better than here. But if someone came to the

house Negro and said, "Let's run away, let's escape, let's separate," the house Negro would look

at him and say, "Man, you crazy. What you mean, separate? Where is there a better house than

this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this? What you

mean, separate? From America? This good white man? Where you going to get a better job than

you get here?" I mean, this is what you say. "I ain't left nothing in Africa," that's what you say.

Why, you left your mind in Africa. "That was that house Negro. In those days he was called a

house nigger. And that's what we call him today

Very similar to the first influx of African slaves into America, many of the first Arab working-

class immigrants that flowed into Europe have abandoned a part of their cultural and religious

identity in their home countries. They wished for their children to benefit from a Western

education and earn a good livelihood, rarely teaching them religious basics and cultural aspects.

This is how the new home grown second class generation Muslims got assimilated into a foreign


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culture and became uprooted to such a degree that very often their name is the only Islamic

leftover they now possess. But on the other hand many of them, just as Alex Hailey, traced back

their religious roots and discovered Islam was much more than their parents told them it was.

Indeed, they entirely took it back to the source and started practicing Islam in its most original

way, bringing the Sunnah their parents had all forgotten about back to life, and living according

to the Quran their often illiterate parents never read. Despite the fact that they are more fluent in

French than their parents and that they are receiving a better French education, Salafis today

have more hardship finding a job their fathers had. Muslims applying the prophetic Sunnah don t

get accepted in French society, in which they are unable to fully practice Islam. A strong desire

to emigrate ensued from this general ill-feeling. Today the Salafi dreams of religious freedom the

same way the slaves in the cotton fields dreamed of physical freedom, all despising the white

man for the injustice he committed on their people, whether it be by slavery or colonization. The

same way black slaves escaped the oppressive racist south to find freedom in the Northern states

of America, European Salafis escape a new form of inquisition in the countries they were raised

in and travel to Muslim countries where they can practice Islam without the headache.

The Ikhwani doesnt understand why his Salafi brother wants to leave France- why he wants to

leave that good French man. But really, why shouldnt they? They are often not allowed onto the

French work plantations, since religious discrimination on the French job market is at an all-time

high. It has become an almost impossible mission for bearded men or head-covered women to

find a job, whether that person has graduated or not. Job-hunting for Salafis has indeed become a

painful activity because employment agencies in France and Belgium are known to work with

religious and racially segregated employee files providing employers with the requested home-

born white employee.

In his analyses Mr. Adraoui claimed that hijra made by French Salafis obeys a western logic,

because they are attracted by modern and dynamic trading circles enabling them to set up

businesses and become wealthy. This quote is in total contradiction to what he previously

stated. How does he reconcile between the restricted understanding he first attributed to Salafis

with them jumping up businesses and then calling it religiousness? Neither Salafis nor any

other Muslims see trading or business as being a western logic and in Islam there is nothing

wrong with becoming wealthy. This is a reproach often made by Ikhwanis who call up to the

boycotting of western products, yet fully accept western ideas; whereas the Salafi is boycotting

western ideas, not western products. For example most Ikhwanis dont drinkCoke, which they

boycott or deem to be haram (illicit) basing themselves on a Yousouf El Qardawi fatwa. TheIkhwani would say that Coca Cola is a Jewish company, to which the Salafi would reply that the

prophet Mohamed was invited to Jewish households where he ate and drank with Jews. A Salafi

doesnt have any problem with enjoying a refreshing can of Coke, or with wearing American

shoes or driving in US-made cars, and will assert that the problem of the Muslim ummah is not

the western financial wealth but rather todays Muslim intellectual and religious poverty.


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The Making of the French House Negro

During the slave days the kernel method used by the slave master to ensure control over the

plantation consisted of taking a handful of submissive slaves and upgrading them to what

Malcolm X called Uncle Toms. They would be given a certain measure of authority over the

field slaves they had to keep in control. In his same speech, Malcolm X compared the civil-rights

leaders of his time to this type of house slave:

Just as the slave master of that day used Tom, the house Negro, to keep the field Negroes in

check, the same old slave master today has Negroes who are nothing but modern Uncle Toms,

20th century Uncle Toms, to keep you and me in check, keep us under control, keep us passive

and peacefuland nonviolent. That's Tom making you nonviolent. The slave master took Tom and

dressed him well, and fed him well, and even gave him a little education -- a little education;

gave him a long coat and a top hat and made all the other slaves look up to him. Then he used

Tom to control them. They controlled you, but they never incited you or excited you. They

controlled you; they contained you; they kept you on the plantation. The same strategy that was

used in those days is used today, by the same white man. He takes a Negro, a so-called Negro,

and make him prominent, build him up, publicize him, make him a celebrity. And then he

becomes a spokesman for Negroes -- and a Negro leader.

The Uncle Tom figure in contemporary France is reincarnated as the French home bred imams

on one hand and state controlled Muslim institutions on the other. During his function as

Minister of Interior affairs Nicolas Sarkozy wanted all French imams to be trained in France and

they were to be given a little education, just enough to be able to control the French

worshippers. In December 2004 Sarkozy announced the provision of university courses forwould-be imams on private law, the constitutional law on public freedom and the history of the

French institutions. These were the courses judged necessary by the French government to teach

and spread Islam in France.

Frances tight control over Muslims all started with the formation of the French Council of the

Muslim Faith (CFCM Conseil franais du Culte musulman) representing diverse Muslim

groups. The project had been launched by Nicolas Sarkozy, again, who actively participated in

joining the OUIF (the French Muslim Brotherhood) to CFCM. In April 2003, after a successful

search for Frances most submissive Sufi, Sarkozy entrusted the Algerian doctor, Dalil

Boubakeur, with leading the newly formed CFCM coalition. By handing over the Islamicreligious authority to a secular Sufi and the French brotherhood Sarko found an inventive way to

impose a hybrid Islam on French Muslims: lIslam de France, being a mixture of sectarian Islam

and French secular humanism. The CFCM became Frances largest Uncle Tom association and

French Salafis considered it as being part of Sarkozys strategy to keep the Muslim masses

unconditionally loyal to French culture and Western values.


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Dalil Boubakeur, the first chairman of the CFCM has often been described as a state controlled

marionette who, with his very little Islamic knowledge, stated that the CFCMs prior engagement

is to not infringe French secularism. Another impressive statement ofFrances new Dalilama

was that his acceptance of French values constituted the wave of the future, as he expressed it:

"That for me is being a modern man, and that is the message I would like to pass on to my

Muslim brothers and sisters. I want them to adopt European culture without fear and to embrace

it wholeheartedly." Sarkozy had found his perfect House Negro calling to French secularism in

the name of Islam and telling French Muslims everything the French President always wanted

but wouldnt dare to utter. Dalil Boubakeur wasnt representing the French Muslim community

in France, but rather he was the de facto representative of the French government to its Muslim

community. In 2008, Boubakeur was followed as chairman of the CFCM by Mohamed

Moussaoui a mathematics professor meticulously walking in the footsteps of his meek

predecessor. In February 2008, after having led the CFCM for five years, Boubakeur got

rewarded for his unconditional loyalty to Sarkozy, who appointed him to Commander to the

Order of National Merit

9

.In his defense of the French Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Adrauoi mentioned that the UOIF

prioritizes the need for a contextual Islam that will allow one to be fully Muslim and fully citizen

at the same time, and said that, Integration leads to reformulating religious imperatives. And

this is exactly the religious bargain European Muslims are faced with today: the more you let go

of your Islamic identity the more equal rights and esteem you will get in our society. A bargain

Ikhwanis have miserably fallen for. Salafis consider their religion to be nonnegotiable, following

the teachings of the prophet Mohamed, who taught his community that there is no obedience to

creation when it comes to disobeying the creator. They therefore reproach Ikhwanis as having

adopted an "I'm going to love these folks no matter how much they hate me"-mentality. Indeed,

integration is assimilation, coexistence is something completely different.

Mohamed Adraoui launched a religious ad by describing the Muslim Brotherhood as a group

insisting on the need to unify Muslims and to come to an agreement with all of them so that

Islam and Muslims restore their glory. This is indeed the sects basic methodology, and was put

forth by the founder of the Ikhwan Muslimoun, Hassan El Banna, who stated, We work together

on what we agree upon, and excuse each other in those areas we differ in. He called it El

Qaida El Dhahabiya (the golden rule) and used this principle in a strategy to unite the

different Muslim sects (regardless of their differences in creed) in the Arab nationalist resistance

to British occupation of Egypt. That is why today almost all sects are represented within the

Brotherhoods religious melting pot, from dancing Sufis to hardcore Takfiris and sometimeseven Christians

10. Ikhwanis are basically hamstrung by their obsession with El Banna writings,

principles, and ideas. They have accepted the western paradigm that the individual makes the

9 The Order of National Merit (lOrdre National du Mrite) was founded on December 3rd 1963 by general de

Gaulle, it rewards people who delivered meritorious services to the French state.10 This has been the case in Palestine where a Greek-Orthodox Christian candidate, Hosam Al Taweel, ran for

Palestinian parliament on behalf of the Ikhwani group Hamas.


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movement, and that the movement is based upon the individual. Salafis reject this, since Islam

has always been based upon transmitted, revealed knowledge; one either accepts it and

implements it, or one does not and, by not doing so, often falls into sectarianism. The people

always change over the centuries but the message never does. All the works and insights of

scholars and others are essential but secondary, and subservient to the foundations which

originate in revelation. Therefore Salafis see that Muslims should unite on Islamic creed and not

on world based political views. They totally reject Hassan El Bannas golden rule, refusing to

line up with terrorists and grave worshippers, and only wish to unite upon the authentic belief of

the Muslim that comprises true solid roots and a firm basis for the building of a successful

society.

Uncle Tantawi and the House Negro Fatwa

In 1712, the British slave owner Willie Lynch developed a method in breaking slave women in

order to get control over the next slave generations. Controlling the black woman would mean

controlling all slaves, since the woman is the strongest link in each community. Similarly, in

2004, Nicolas Sarkozy, in what was seen as an attempt to break Muslim women, developed a law

banning the headscarf. French Muslims were oppressed by the new law,but almost didnt react

to it because domestic and foreign religious institutions had been functioning as tranquilizers to

the Muslim community. Dalil Boubakeur called on Muslims to show solidarity with the French

people in respecting the new law on secularism and branded the French pro-hijab march as being

dangerous. Boubakeur was saying out loud everything Sarkozy was silently whispering into his

ear. During the 1960s in America, Black Christian preachers and civil rights activists were

reprimanded by Malcolm X for their lax approach to white oppression:

It's like when you go to the dentist, and the man's going to take your tooth. You're going to

fight him when he starts pulling. So he squirts some stuff in your jaw called novocaine, to make

you think they're not doing anything to you. So you sit there and 'cause you've got all of that

novocaine in your jaw, you suffer peacefully. Blood running all down your jaw, and you don't

know what's happening. 'Cause someone has taught you to suffer -- peacefully. The white man do

the same thing to you in the street, when he want to put knots on your head and take advantage

of you and don't have to be afraid of your fighting back. To keep you from fighting back, he gets

these old religious Uncle Toms to teach you and me, just like novocaine, suffer peacefully. Don't

stop suffering -- just suffer peacefully. As Reverend Cleage pointed out, "Let your blood flow Inthe streets." This is a shame. And you know he's a Christian preacher. If it's a shame to him, you

know what it is to me...


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The law that was passed on March 15th

2004 banning all conspicuous religious symbols in public

schools and government offices was a complicated way of saying that the headscarf had to

disappear. Surprisingly, Christmas trees remained and no one seemed to care about the

yarmulkes11

. The law was only aimed at Muslims and more specifically the most vulnerable

amongst them: the Muslim woman12

. With the call of reaffirming the French tradition of

secularism, a new form of hidden religious apartheid was born and no one knew how to counter

it.

In the 60s, American racist laws were preventing young black girls from attending classes due

to a segregated school system. In France the headscarf ban is today excluding thousands of

Muslim schoolgirls from attending French public schools and colleges due to religious

segregation. The discrimination is the same; only the reason for it has changed. The French

Muslima today has no choice but to suffer peacefully; never had she been more humiliated as

then. Sarko had stolen her right to dress according to her belief and to live accordingly to her

principles. She is refused work and education simply because she wants to practice Islam. The

Salafi often wonders: if France gives its female citizens the right to walk in miniskirts, why

wouldnt they give our Muslim sisters the right to put a piece of cloth on her head? And why are

Christian nuns never bothered or discriminated against when they wear headscarves? French

tourists never encounter any problem when they bathe naked on the shores of Muslim countries

holding tight to their Carlsberg. So why is it when the Muslim woman wants to cover she is

infringing French liberty. Boubakeur counters this way of thinking and has an entire different

way of seeing things: "I am not in favor of multiculturalism, as a matter of fact there is only one

culture: French culture."

The UOIF opposed the anti-hijab bill and Boubakeur, who had previously stated that the

headscarf was an obstacle to integration, said the scarf ought to be replaced by a bandanna,

knowing that his full support to get Muslim women unveiled would mean his end. But if Sarkos

local house Negros werent going to give him the much needed fatwa, he would snatch it abroad

from Egypts Al-Azhar University, where he met with Uncle Tantawi. Indeed, Sarkozy was able

to squeeze an express fatwa out of the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohamed Sayed

Tantawi, who told French Muslim women to obey their French master and take off their scarves.

In the Arab world Tantawi is known to be Egypts government fatwa pimp, issuing measure -

made fatwas to local political leaders who, for the occasion, had lent the Azhari Sheikh toFrances interior minister. Two days after the pronounced edict, on January 1st, Dalil Boubakeur

sent a thank-you letter13

to Al-Azhar in name of the entire French Muslim Community,

eulogizing the fatwa which had a relieving impact and was unanimously well received by all

11 Jewish skullcaps12 The latest example of this is the case of Faiza M., a niqab-wearing Moroccan woman who was denied French

citizenship on the grounds of "insufficient assimilation" into France.13 The letter was made public by Al-Azhar on January 3rd and was published in several Egyptian newspapers


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French Muslims at all levels. To put it short, Boubakeur thanked Tantawi for having done the

dirty job.

French people love to boast of their many freedoms, but are unable and unwilling to apply them

in their own country. The universal declaration on human rights isnt that universal after all.

France doesnt respect freedom of religion and their national motto libert galit fraternit isonly applied to its non-Muslim citizens. Having someone like Boubakeur speak in name of five

million Muslim citizens shows the French are not ready to accept other thinking patterns from its

religious minorities.

Suburban Intifada

On November 9th 2005, exactly 42 years after the Malcolm Xs Message to the grass roots,

France witnessed one of its most severe riots ever. Violence erupted all over the country and

suburbs were set to fire. The most worrying part of this uproar was that the youth that were

revolting didnt even have a Malcolm X figure calling them to a violent street revolutionintending to bring all their rights into existence by any means necessary. It came as a natural

reaction to the racism-infected French police14 and DST15 who are both given great impunity

when it comes to dealing with the suburban youth. But today was payback day, a blind revenge

broke out and left the French stupefied. Did the Muslim state-controlled organizations lose entire

control of the banlieues, or had it just became clear they never had any influence on the youthful

masses? One thing was sure: Sarkozys strategy in forming the Muslim bulwark institutions to

pacify the French suburbs had miserably flopped, and the French model of integration had been

torched along with some six thousand cars.

A similar situation occurred in the US during Malcolm Xs time, who described how the blackcivil rights leaders lost control over their people once they started revolting. X, later known as

Malik El-Shabazz, considered leading civil rights activists like Martin Luther King, Roy

Wilkins16

, Philip Randolph17

and James Farmer18

to be pacifist House Negros. The gap between

civil rights organizations like NAACP19

or CORE20

and the African-American community

became clear when in the spring of 1963 riots broke out in Birmingham, Alabama21

. As Malcolm

X put it, they were losing control over the Negro masses:

On thatsame plantation, there was the field Negro. The field Negroesthose were the masses.

There were always more Negroes in the field than there were Negroes in the house.As soon as

14 This has been confirmed by several Amnesty International reports15 The 'Direction de la surveillance du territoire' is a French anti-terroriste intelligence service16Roy Wilkins was NAACPs Executive Secretary17 Philip Randolph was the founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters18 James L. Farmer, Jr. co-founded The Congress of Racial Equality in 194219 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People20 The Congress of Racial Equality21 The demonstrations of the Birmingham campaign were aimed at ending segregation policies in the city


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12

Martin Luther King failed in Birmingham, Negroes took to the streets. Wilkins started attacking

King, and King started attacking Roy, and Farmer started attacking both of them. And as these

Negroes of national stature began to attack each other, they began to lose their control of the

Negro masses. It was the grass roots out there in the street. It scared the white man to death,

scared the white power structure in Washington D.C. to death; I was there.

It was only after an outbreak of severe hostilities that the folks at the Elyse realized they had

greatly underestimated the growing resentment of its minority groups, which were only

reciprocated with incomprehension and repression. By having France's labor force hoarded in

suburban repositories, they came to realize that they had been sleeping with the enemy. This

unpredicted consequence of clear class segregation meant the bankruptcy of the French

integration policy, which had never been more obvious than now. Numerous articles were

written in the French press trying to find an answer to why a multicultural intifada had burst out

in their backyard. But no single newspaper was able to come up with a sensible explanation or

simply didnt have the guts to speak about a reality that the French still refuse to face; the realitythat France has today become Europes most racist and islamophobic country.

When political turmoil struck America some forty-five years ago, John F. Kennedy gathered

with the heads of the national Civil rights movement in hopes of having them bring an end to the

uproar. This is how it was described in the Message to the Grassroots:

When they found out that this black steamroller was going to come down on the capital, they

called in Wilkins; they called in Randolph; they called in these national Negro leaders that you

respect and told them, "Call it off." Kennedy said, "Look, you all letting this thing go too far."

And Old Tom said, "Boss, I can't stop it, because I didn't start it." I'm telling you what they said.

They said, "I'm not even in it, much less at the head of it." They said, "These Negroes are doingthings on their own. They're running ahead of us." And that old shrewd fox, he said, "Well If you

all aren't in it, I'll put you in it. I'll put you at the head of it. I'll endorse it. I'll welcome it. I'll

help it. I'll join it."

A few days prior to the outburst of the French riots Nicolas Sarkozy, who was then running for

president, declared on national television that he was going to clean out the suburbs from what

he described as la racaille, the French equivalent of the American racist term niggers . He

reiterated this insult on several occasions, and it positively influenced his campaign. This was the

kind of president that racist France was hoping for. When the French suburbs were set on fire,Muslim organizations fought hard to put out the blaze, whereas the revolting youth prayed for a

strong wind to come along. And Sarkozy, who by then had become the banlieuesmost hated

political figure ever, had now been nicknamed Sarkochon (Sarkopig) by its inhabitants.

The riots galvanized into action the French Interior Minister who summoned his Muslim

representatives, trying to find a way to have them stop the riots. Sarko called in Boubakeur and

asked him to do something to stop the suburban revolt. But Uncle Bou had never lived in the


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13

suburbs, he had hardly ever visited one, and Muslims never saw him as being one of them. As

one of the French Muslim Union leaders once put it: "He speaks the language of the French

elites, not that of ordinary Muslims. The youth in the suburbs don't understand him, and he does

not understand them." Boubakeur couldnt stop it since he didnt start it. For once he wasnt able

to serve his French sayyid.

The black revolt in the US and the suburban riots of France shocked the world. Major world

powers with aggressive foreign policies ruling big parts of the world were unable to solve

problems in their own ghettos. Sarkozy had to call in the army the same way JFK did in 1963:

And Negroes was out there in the streets. They was talking about how we was going to march

on Washington22

. By the way, right at that time Birmingham had exploded, and the Negroes in

Birmingham -- remember, they also exploded. They began to stab the crackers in the back and

bust them up 'side their head -- yes, they did. That's when Kennedy sent in the troops, down in

Birmingham. So, and right after that, Kennedy got on the television and said "this is a moral

issue."

John F. Kennedy called the riot a moral issue and knew it wasnt; Sarkozy made it a religious

issue knowing it wasnt. The riots had nothing to do with Islam, but clumsy French media

coverage ignited a new wave of anti-Islamic sentiments and kindled the fire of French

Islamophobia. Although Salafis and Ikhwanis had no part in the suburban outburst, Sarko

Islamized the riots and fully exploited them in his political campaign by having the French

Muslim representatives condemn23

and almost apologize for a crime neither they nor their

religion were guilty of. A master trick Uncle Tom wasnt able to apprehend, since he was lacking

all insight in Sarkozys political strategies.

22 In the summer of 1963, King led the March on Washington where he delivered his most famous speech: "I Have a

Dream".23 During the uproar the UOIF was pressured to issue a fatwa condemning the riots.


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14

Breaking the Silent Consensus of Western Fashion

America and Europe have for many generations greatly benefited from imported work labor; but

the new working class was only loved and appreciated by the host people for what it did, not for

who it was. The people that constitute Frances main labor force are seen as cockroaches theFrench want to get rid of- but are too in need of to do so. In his time, Malcolm X tackled the

problem of racism and demanded equal treatment:

America has a very serious problem. Not only does America have a very serious problem, but

our people have a very serious problem. America's problem is us. We're her problem. The only

reason she has a problem is she doesn't want us hereI believe in treating people right, but I'm

not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn't know how to return the

treatment...24

Salafism has become Sarkozys worst nightmare, and this feeling of hatred is entirely mutual.

The French religious apartheid is mainly based on the disturbing way practicing Muslims dress.

A Salafi growing his beard and wearing an Islamic garment realizes he is persona non grata in

France and knows that most French want to see this image removed from the street scene.

Mr. Adraoui stated that Salafis act as if they dont want to stay connected with their former

environment. It is rather their former environment that has spat them out as being the date pit

French society is unable to digest. Salafis didnt break more with society than society had broken

with them, and all other Muslims who dress, behave, and think according to Islam.

But why do Salafis dress like that? Mohamed Adraoui believes that their dress aims at stating at

an immediate glance that they do not belong to modern t imes. Rather it says that they are "freethinkers" who have the courage to challenge the modern trend towards a Western based

monoculture. It is well known that a major pillar of this phenomenon is the tidal wave of western

fashion along with its concepts and ideas, such that to be modern now is equated with wearing

blue jeans. Therefore the dress of the Salafis says that they adhere to a consciously accepted and

stable standard and criterion that is not under the control of the cultural organizations, ministries,

and groups. Salafis dont shun modernity, they just dont see it as being tied to the external

appearances of certain people or restricted to Western culture.

Saying that dressing Islamically is backwardness is a typical Ikhwani House Negro critique on

the Salafi who refuses to conform to the informal dress code imposed by France. In general,Western Ikhwanis as well as Sufis are uncultivated when it comes to Islam and consider the

Sunnah to be a relic from the 7th

century and therefore see the Salafi as a fuddy-duddy. Salafis of

course see it the other way around and believe Ikhwanis have a mental lag due to their lack of

religious identity and consciousness which is being expressed in their blind following of the

24 Detroit speech, Michigan ( November 10th 1963) and New York City Speech (December 12th 1964)


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15

western way of dressing. Like many French Muslims, Mr. Adraoui seems to be unacquainted

with Islamic clothes, which became clear when he described the shorter pants that end before the

ankles to be an izar. The Arabic word for this kind of pants is sirwal, an izaris a loincloth that is

wrapped around the waste. Many French Moroccans like Mr. Adraoui are fluent in Darija (a far

derived dialect of Arabic) but merely speak or understandfusha (classical Arabic).

To the Salafi, Islam fills up all aspects of life and prescribes to Muslims a way of dressing,

thinking, behaving and worshipping and therefore they have no need for the cultural values of

their ex-colonizers. This new dress dilemma is shaking up the French socialization process. The

French dont want them to dress in robes and taaqiyas; but at the same time they claim to want to

maintain freedom of religion.

Mr. Adraoui also stated that before conversion many Salafis lived an un-Islamic life, including

the consumption of alcohol and sexual promiscuity. That is indeed true for the many Salafis and

the difference with their Ikhwani counterpart is that the latter, after his conversion, still lives an

un-Islamic life of sin and often sexual promiscuity.

Salafi World Citizenship

A new generation is born which does not agree with the de facto Western cultural way of

thinking, and they are well aware that the price they pay for their religious independence will

sour their lives. But this is the choice they make, and they have accepted the fact that they will

never be accepted in French society. The same holds true for the Afro-American community,

which after all these centuries still faces wide-spread racism in present-day America. This is how

Malcolm X worded it:

Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in Ameri ca doesn't

make you an AmericanWe dont see any American dream; weve experienced only the

American nightmare. We havent benefited from Americas democracy; weve only suffered from

Americas hypocrisy. And the generation thats coming up now can see it and are not afraid to

say it...25

A typical remark people make of Salafis is that they do not consider themselves as citizens, but

as people whose bond with the state is not allegiance but utility, using the words of Mr.

Adraoui. Ikhwanis see themselves living in a philanthropic society to which they have to be

thankful and faithful, often not realizing that the bond France always had with its Muslimcitizens, from the first day France welcomed its Arab immigrants has never been allegiance or

compassion, but 100% utility. They came to rebuild France in its post world war era. Many of

them were placed as soldiers in the front lines of the French and Belgian armies to fight other

non-Arab enemies to whom they had no link with whatsoever. The same way black people were

25Taken from The Bullet or the Ballot speech, Cleveland, Ohio ( April 3rd 1964)


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16

put in the firing lines in the Vietnam War, fighting non-white people with whom they didnt have

any relation. The Arabs helped them fight in their war against the German Nazis and helped

them build up their country; yet all this has never made them fully accepted citizens. And that is

quite surprising, since France cannot survive without its Muslim population. If only half of the

Muslims were to leave France tomorrow its economy would collapse within less than a month. It

is very unlikely a Monsieur Lacroix is going to busy himself with wiping clean the windows of

the Montparnasse Tower. Despite their huge need of Arab labor, the French have no scruples

about treating French Muslims as second class citizens. And the French political establishment is

far from introducing Affirmative Action projects to help its minorities. That is also why the

French Salafis are not concerned about giving esteem or respect to what they consider a racist

country which is based on utilizing people they despise due to their religion.

Another reproach made to Salafis by Mr. Adraoui was that they have no scruples in taking

welfare from the state. They do not admit that accepting welfare is prohibited. This personal

fatwa from Adraoui is quite unique since no Islamic scholar has preceded him in prohibiting

welfare. I really doubt this financial analyst has enough Islamic knowledge to issue fatwas for

Salafis. Mentioning welfare futility to forget the exploitation of migration utility is a common

French practice to hold non-French citizens culpable.

According to Adraoui, Salafis are rightfully excluded from the labor market because their dress

aims at stating that they do not belong to modern times. Also they cant benefit from welfare

because Mr. Adraoui has declared it forbidden for them to receive money from the French

government. When purist Salafis start up businesses Mr. Adraoui is accusing them of wishing to

hold on to the many attractive features of western modernity and consumer culture and if they

leave France to become wealthy they are obeying a western logic. For a Salafi to make it in

life is described by Mr. Adraoui as being a change from a down and out state to a chosen one

state and he then blames Salafis of considering it as religious superiority. It seems Mr. Adraoui is

only going to be satisfied with Salafis if they starve to death in extreme poverty. He ended by

describing Salafis as being the bourgeoisie whereas he previously stated that salafism is

overwhelmingly popular with young Muslims who do not succeed at school and are mistrustful

of the surrounding society. But to anyone who writes about what he doesnt fully grasp, a good

dose of self-contradiction is an expected and frequent occurrence.

In blind following the French press Adraoui is describing Muslim terrorists as being Islamists

not realizing he is using an Islamophobic term since it attributes terror to Islam. By ist-ing the

name of a religion to describe actions of terror and killings of innocent people, Islam has

received the most pejorative connotation of all religions. If someone were to attribute terrorism

to Christianity by calling IRA bombers Christianists, no single Christian would accept it and

consider it very offending. But Muslims have no choice and have to put up with it. Due to

worldwide feelings of Islamic resentment, Muslims, when listening to news, get torpedoed in

their households with terms such as: extremists, radicals, integrists, fanatics, terrorists,. All of


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which are always carefully preceded by Islam. Ikhwanis have accepted these terms; Salafis

fully reject them and consider them to be insulting to Islam.

Unlike the French Muslim Brotherhood, Salafism doesnt have an organized infrastructure and

isnt represented by any religious organization. It doesnt have any local scholars, but it is

growing at a tremendous pace. Salafism has set foot on the European continent- it is here and itis here to stay. It is strong, it has pride and it is hated by the French political establishment who

see any significant manifestation of Islam to be a slap in the face of modern pluralism and

democratic ideals. Increasingly more young Muslims are leaving the sects of political Islam and

Arab nationalism and are accepting the orthodox Islam Malcolm X accepted on his return from

Hajj, freeing himself from the Black Nationalism and the NOI racist sect.

Purist Salafism in France was an insulting and denigrating article to Salafis and another true

misrepresentation of French Salafism, in which they felt the sting of the Ikhwani lash. One

cannot understand and study Salafism if he doesnt understand and study Islam. Salafism is not a

manifestation of post Islamism but a quest for the grass roots of religious independence. Bybasing themselves entirely on the Quran and the prophetic tradition according to the

understanding of thesalaf assaaleh26

, Salafis refuse to blindly follow the religious interpretations

of their often uncultivated parents or their state controlled religious Uncle Tom organizations.

Salafis have grown out of the hexagonal working-class mentality and no longer belong to a lost

generation. They have broken loose from the French cultural shackles they grew up with and see

Islam as being one, universal, authentic, and as something that could never be French. The y

have transgressed the narrow borders of Western prevailing cultural norms and hence attained

world citizenship. Salafis have brothers and sisters all over the world who they consider to be

their real compatriots. In returning to the Islamic sources they found back a lost pride and

religious dignity.

Written by Kareem El Hidjaazi

July 21st 2008, Yemen

This article was a reply to Purist Salafism in France by Mohamed Adraoui, originally

published by ISIM Review, Europes number one islamophobic magazine.

26The predecessors during Islams first three generations who were closest to the era of revelation and ha d the best

understanding of Islam

the french suburban house and field negro

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