the french suburban house and field negro
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The French Suburban House and Field Negro
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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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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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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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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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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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