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November 2, 2006

France: 72 Muslim Staff At Roissy Airport Barred

Back in April of this year, the head of the Mouvement Pour La France party, Philippe de Villiers, published a book entitled "Les Mosquees de Roissy". In this, he revealed that at least 50 Muslims who worked in baggage handling at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport (nicknamed "Roissy") were regarded as security risks. These individuals had been identified by the French frontier police.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister, visited the airport in mid-April, and claimed that there were only 122 out of out 83,000 staff with security badges who were "more or less suspect". Sarkozy had visited the airport to allay public fears, and had managed to double the figures provided by de Villiers. Sarkozy said there were moves to remove 60% of these workers' security clearance.

A week after Sarkozy's visit, the Roissy workers became the center of a political argument. Sud Aerien, an airport workers' union called his disclosure "a political stunt by a future candidate." The Socialist Party and the French Council of the Muslim Faith condemned de Villiers as an "Islamophobe". Dalil Boubakeur, who is also senior imam of the Grand Mosque of Paris, had said of Villiers' comments concerning the airport security and style of union affairs, that they were "an outrageous caricature" of Islam, and demanded an investigation.

59-year old author Philippe de Villiers is a devout Catholic and was born a Viscount. His political party, the Mouvement pour la France, is on the right wing, though is not extreme like the Front National. Though in previous elections having a low vote, comprising 5 to 8 per cent of the electorate, it seems that M. de Villiers is working towards a bigger electoral result in next year's elections. Already his party is characterized by its opposition to the European Union. Their slogan is "Giving Back France". Villiers is a deputy in the French National Assembly. In 1981, he resigned from a political post, because he would not work for Francois Mitterand.

In his book "Les Mosquees de Roissy", Villiers warned that Islam was a threat to France. He said that the luggage-handling facilities at the airport employ "predominantly Muslims and are organised on ethnic and religious criteria under a mafia-like system." In an interview from April 23, he said: "The presence of Islamic radicals is not marginal, it's real, deeply-rooted and dangerous."

For a while the issue lay dormant in the media until last month. Then, reports in AKI, Le Monde, IC Wales, Sydney Morning Herald and the BBC reported that four North African-origin baggage handlers at Roissy had their security clearance revoked.

The four individuals' passes were revoked by local government. Jacques Lebrot, head of the local government office which made the decision, said the issue was not related to their religion but because they were perceived as a terrorist risk. Lawyers for the four men said that dozens of other Muslims had been stripped of security clearance. One lawyer, Eric Moutet, said: "The link among these people is that either they are Arab - or practise their religion in a normal way." He claimed local authorities "are in essence asking people to prove they are not terrorists."

Lebrot, the deputy prefect of the Seine-St-Denis district, in which Roissy is located, said then: "For us, someone who goes on holiday to Pakistan several times raises questions. We look for people who could compromise airport security." He confirmed that others who "threatened the security of a secure zone" had their passes revoked, which gave them access to areas within the proximity of runways.

The issue came to the attention of the news because of the appeals of the four men, which had been made on October 19 at an administrative court.

Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking at the Sorbonne University, said that 43 individuals had been stripped of security passes. He claimed: "There were specific elements that made us forbid them entry. I cannot accept that people with radical practices." he said that it was his duty to ensure workers had no links to radical organizations.

Sarkozy also added that seven clandestine and illegal "prayer rooms" had been closed down at Roissy and at Orly (another of the main Paris airports), since the start of the year. He did furnish details. He also confirmed that 18 imams had been expelled from France since January.

In August, the deputy chief of the Air and Frontier Police for Orly airport, Yvon Caratero, had said that eight prayer rooms had been closed at Orly as a "preventative" move.

There are officially approved prayer rooms for the use of everyone in the three terminals of Roissy.

Sarkozy said that earlier in the year, some 70 airport employees had been dismissed from their jobs as they were not a "zero-risk" to airport security.

News now from the Guardian, Chicago Tribune, Daily Mail, Le Figaro, BBC, and the UK Independent, states that 72 more Muslim baggage handlers have lost their security clearance, and are barred from sensitive areas.

Jacques Lebrot said that the 72 employees were suspected of having links with people who rejected "France and our values". He said that one of these employees had been a friend of Richard Reid, the "shoe-bomber". Reid, currently serving 60 years in a maximum security jail in Colorado, had tried to blow up an American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami. He had attempting to put a lighted match to his shoe, on December 22, 2001, to detonate explosives contained within.

Monsieur Lebrot said that 68 other individuals had been cleared of having suspicious links. He said about a dozen more employees were told that they were considered to be risks to security, but were still employed while investigations were made. The unions for baggage-handling employees said that some were still at work at Roissy, cleaning planes and handling luggage.

Jacques de Villiers, who had initiated the alert, had written in his book that clandestine prayer-rooms were located beneath Roissy's runways, and that Islamists were ready to put the work areas under Sharia law.

Today, according to Le Figaro de Villliers argued that the face-veil should be banned in public places in France.

He said: "A strong signal is needed. France must assert its values. The Moslems are of course free to practise their faith, but they must respect the laws of the Republic and our ways of life. I thus propose the prohibition of the Islamic veil in public streets and spaces. The Islamic veil is a symbol of a woman's submission, and affects her dignity.. It is also an obstacle to full membership of the national community and an instrument used by activists who attack the foundations of the Republic."

"In the current state of the French right, one cannot cure the scandalous situations that the Stasi report** on secularism denounced thus in December 2003: "Some girls or women wear the veil through choice, but with others wear it under force or pressure. Thus it leads from there to pre-adolescent young girls being forced to wear the veil, sometimes using violence." The Stasi report added: "Girls, once veiled, can cross the stair-wells of apartment buildings without fear of abuse, even physical mistreatment, as they would experience before, when veil-less. The veil offers to them thus, paradoxically, the protection which the Republic should guarantee." Should we continue to divert our eyes?"

** - The government-sponsored Stasi Report which became the basis of the banning of the Muslim headscarf and veil in French schools, which came into force in 2004. Published December 11, 2003, this report recommended that "In respect for freedom of conscience, and the pure character of the institutions, behaviours and signs expressing a religious or political affiliation are prohibited in schools and colleges. Any appropriate sanction is to be taken after the pupil is invited to conform to his obligations. The prohibited behaviours and religious signs are open signs, such as large crosses, veils, or kippas. Discrete signs are not included, for example medals, small crosses, stars of David, hands of Fatimah, or a small Koran."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 2, 2006 4:10 PM

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Posted by: kobbelers at November 2, 2006 5:03 PM

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