Reasons Behind the Reluctance of French Authorities From Stopping the Hostilities Against Muslims in Lyon

Although the Muslim community in the French Lyon city is the largest and one of the best organized, today it is subjected to unprecedented acts of hatred. The French authorities are accused of clear reluctance from any kind of intervention to stop the growing phenomenon.

The French newspaper La Croix issued a report prepared by Eve Guyot stressing that: “the mental state of the French community in the Rhone region and its capital, Lyon, is very bad.”

The writer stated that this was revealed on Friday, February 4, when the parliamentary mission on anti-religious actions visited Lyon and met with leaders of different religions, especially representatives of Muslims who expressed great concern about the increasing hostilities they are exposed to.

Kamel Kabtane, an influential Muslim figure in France and the dean of the Great Mosque in Lyon, began his meeting with parliamentarians Isabelle Florin and Ludovic Mendesa by a hatred letter he received the same morning.

He read a few lines from the hatred letter to show the necessity and urgency of the authorities’ intervention. He added: “These assaulting words were received by a Muslim who regrets the unprecedented increase of anti-Muslim hatred and strongly condemns the state's failure to respond.”

Kabtane, who is also president of the Rhone Council of Mosques, added that what that letter spoke of was "the state of mind of the Muslim community here in recent months", saying: "I have never known France in such a state."

 

Anti-Religious Acts Inventory

The two French representatives' visit to Lyon came as a response to the request of the government to prepare an inventory of anti-religious acts committed in France. Thus, they are touring France to meet religious officials and to hold hearings with them.

The La Croix report pointed out that the local leaders of the Islamic faith were particularly eager to meet with this mission, to inform it of the high-risk threats and the offensive actions against Muslims. The hate acts increased by 32% according to the latest report issued by the French Ministry of Interior.

In an interview with Al-Estiklal, the lawyer and expert in international law in France, Ismail Khalafallah said: “All political currents today are preparing for the elections, so any decision can have dramatic repercussions. Thus, we may find statements of condemnation, but not real actions to stop the offensives.”

He added: “ In the midst of a premature election campaign and with some politicians marketing racist rhetoric, it is difficult to expect a real intervention to stop the hate campaigns against Muslims in Lyon.”

He emphasized: “After the elections, we may hope for the universal human rights system to re-become effective, namely the cessation of hate speech towards any component. Yet today the human rights system faces a real decline due to the hate speech espoused by the extreme right.”

 

Violence Against Muslims

The French representative Mossel Ludovic Mendez stated that the Rhone region is one of the French provinces where there is a Muslim community that is the largest and one of the best organized in France, but that there is also a "particularly active far-right network."

The year 2020 was a particularly difficult year for Muslims. In addition to the deliberate burning of the Brunei Mosque and the Al-Birach mosque in the middle of the summer, institutions and their leaders were repeatedly targeted, and the Great Mosque of Lyon was subjected to a flood of verbal insults during the time of one of the prayers.

The attacks target people also. According to the Lacroix report, the businessman Yassin, a 38-year-old resident of Lyon, said that in November 2021 he began building his new home in a small town in the Haute-Loire, when the building tools were set on fire. His building permit was eventually suspended by the city council, after a public meeting with its residents.

In addition to individuals, mosques, the statues didn’t spark aggression. A far-right group vandalized a statue of the symbol of humanity, Emir Abdel Qader. The Algerian Abdel Qader was remembered For his humanitarian dealings with the French prisoners during the period of French colonization of Algeria.

After being exiled to France by the French authorities, we were welcomed by the first French captives. They formed an association called the Society of the Ancient Prisoners of Emir Abdel Qader. His outstanding values made him a symbol for humanity and pushed France to make a special statue to celebrate his humanitarian actions.

Kabtane believes that what caused these abuses is the "unleashing" white extremists in the media field, as well as in the political field, explaining that hostilities, when they became daily, no longer found anyone to condemn them.

 

Presidential Race

The rise of hatred in Lyon seems to be closely related to the race for the upcoming France presidential elections scheduled for April 2022.

For instance, The Guardian newspaper emphasized that the presidential candidate and TV celebrity Éric Zemmour “is a hardline Islamophobe who argues that France is about to be overrun by Islam.”

With this fear-generating discourse, it is not surprising that the Muslim minorities in Lyon and in other French cities are subjected to discrimination. The Guardian emphasized that Zemmour joined the representative of the nativist right, Marine Le Pen. “Extraordinarily, together they command just over 30% of opinion poll support,” the newspaper said.

Khalafallah explained to Al-Estiklal: “Since all politicians are striving to win the right voters’ support, the members of this current proudly and publicly commit hatred actions against Muslims”

He added: “Another factor responsible for the escalation of the insults and attacks against Muslims, in Lyon in particular and in France in general, is what was observed two years ago.”

He stated: “Official politicians have officially adopted the right discourse on many occasions. Macron's circle, for example, wants to attract the right voters through the populist discourse similar to the National Rally and the radical Erik Zemmour’s one. Macron seeks this way to attract a segment of French society that used to vote for the right or far-right.”