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September 14, 2007

France: Are Islamists Driving Jews Out?

23-year old Ilan Halimi worked at a cellular phone store in the boulevard Voltaire in Paris. Young and Jewish, he was approached in January, 2006 in the store by a young girl of Iranian origin aged 17, who called herself Yalda. They flirted with each other, swapped phone numbers, and arranged a rendezvous for January 21. Ilan turned up for the date, but in addition to meeting the seductive young woman who had chatted with him earlier, he was met by three members of a gang that called itself "The Barbarians". The gang members were mostly Muslim, and their leader was a 26-year old, originally from the Cote d'Ivoire, called Youssouf Fofana.

The gang took Ilan to the Pierre-Plate housing project in Bagneux in the suburban district of Hauts-de-Seine. The gang had rented an apartment in one of the blocks, but Ilan was destined to be imprisoned in a pump room in the basement. He screamed for two minutes as the hooded thugs carried him off. The gang had a close relationship with the janitor at the housing block. Up to 30 people in the building would eventually know what was going on beneath them, but no-one bothered to call the police.

For Yalda, her part in the plan was over. She had been paid $6,000 to seek out a victim, and on the night of the kidnap, she and her boyfriend whooped it up in a hotel room paid for by the gang. Fofana had been impressed by Yalda's good looks, and had told her: "With you I can do wonders. With your physique you'll make a fortune." A worker in a store adjoining Ilan's workplace had noticed a young brunette (Yalda) acting strangely three days before the kidnapping. He said: "One of our seasoned salesman picked up immediately that she hadn't come to buy, but to 'fish'." She had passed through five shops before homing in on Ilan.

For Ilan Halimi, his abduction was the start of three weeks of torture. Tied up naked, with his face covered, he was subjected to a catalogue of abuse. Cigarettes were burned into his skin, and cuts were made on his face. While Ilan was held hostage, his family received ransom demands. Initially, the kidnappers demanded that the Halimi family provide 400,000 Euros ($475,000). Ilan's mother Ruth told them that they did not have access to such a sum. The family was told to get money from a synagogue. Ilan's family also had to listen to quotes from the Koran, given by those responsible for torturing their son. Speaking on stolen cellular phones, the kidnappers dropped the ransom to 5,000 Euros ($5,900), but in the first week of February, the calls stopped.

Eventually Youssouf Fofana, who called himself the "Brain of the Barbarians", appeared to grow bored with his captive. On Monday, February 13 2006, Ilan Halimi was taken to Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois in Essonne, Ile de la Cite, a southeastern suburb of Paris. He was still naked. One of Fofana's accomplices named Samir Ait Abdelmalek later attested that Fofana said that he would be responsible for freeing their captive. Instead of freeing him, Fofana had sliced Ilan in the neck with a knife, and then gashed his victim in the side of his neck, followed by puncturing the nape of Ilan's neck. He then stabbed Ilan in his side, and poured gasoline over him.

Fofana would later claim that he had left Ilan in the custody of two men, one of whom was nicknamed "Crim" (Jean-Christophe S.). Speaking in Cote d'Ivoire, where he had later fled, Fofana said: "Crim and his buddy had met at Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, where they disposed of the body in a wood, and they had poured acid on his entire body, which they had then set on fire and it made a ball of flame."

Despite all he had endured, Ilan Halimi was still alive when he was discovered. He was found tied to a tree near a railway track, with his body covered in 80% burns. The burns had not only been made by flames. Autopsy reports confirmed that acid had been poured over Ilan's naked body, perhaps in an attempt to remove DNA traces. Ilan was placed in an ambulance, but died on his way to hospital.

There were 15 arrests immediately after the body had been discovered, and several people were charged. Ruth Halimi was not happy with the way the police had treated the case. She said: "We told the police that there had been at least three other attempted abductions of young Jews, but they persisted in considering the motives purely criminal because they are afraid of reviving a clash with the Muslims."

The "clashes" of Muslims which Ruth Halimi refers to had erupted in the suburbs of Paris from late October to early November 2005.

24-year old Audrey Orleach had been one of the first people to be questioned by police about Ilan's murder. She noticed a computer-generated image of herself on a police poster, and turned herself in. She agreed to assist the police to hunt down the gang members. Most were captured in the vicinity of Paris, though one was apprehended in Brussels, Belgium. Fofana had fled to Abidjan immediately after the murder, and spent the first night in his home country in the bed of a prostitute. He was later extradited to Paris, arriving on Saturday, March 4, 2006 and stating that he was "ready to cooperate".

According to Audrey Lorleach, Fofana had deliberately sought out a Jewish victim for kidnap. He had taken note of which stores closed on Jewish holidays. Audrey herself had earlier been a bait in Fofana's kidnap plans. She said that one victim that she had tried to entrap turned out to be non-Jewish, and had been rejected by the "Barbarians". She did not follow through on her second "target" and later claimed that Fofana had shouted at her that she had to finish what she had started. Audrey claimed that Fofana thought all Jews were rich and would club together to pay a ransom for one of their number.

Initially, the Paris prosecutor had tried to deny that there was "evidence of an anti-Semitic motice" for Ilan's murder. A fortnight after Ilan's body had been discovered, the Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, said that since December 2005, the "Barbarians" had tried to kidnap six other people. Four of these had been Jewish. He claimed that the gang had primarily been motivated by greed, and the prejudiced belief that "Jews have money". He announced: "That's anti-Semitism."

While in custody in Cote d'Ivoire, Fofana admitted that he had sought out a Jew to kidnap, but had done so under the assumption of Jews having money, and not on account of religion.

The riots of late 2005 were mostly carried out by Muslim youths in the suburbs of Paris. The riots had started in Clichy-Sous-Bois after three youths had run from police and hidden in an electricity substation turbine on October 27. Two of the youths, 17-year old Ziad Benna and 15-year old Banou Traore, had died of electrocution. The first rioters included young people who had worshipped at the Clichy-Sous-Bois mosque, whose imam was Dhaou Meskine. On June 19, 2006, Meskine and 20 members of his family were arrested. He was accused of money-laundering for terrorists. A supporter of universal Sharia law, Meskine often surrounded himself with members of the Tunisian Islamist group Ennahda. This group draws on the teachings of Muslim Brotherhood luminaries Sayyid Qutb, Hassan al-Banna, and also Syed Ala Maududi.

Almost as soon as they began, the riots had spread to other suburbs, and other parts of France. What began as a protest against the French authorities quickly expanded to include other targets. By the time the riots had officially ended on November 21, 2006, two synagogues, churches, and two Jewish schools had been set ablaze.

The anti-Semitism of radical Muslims has been steadily growing in France since the start of the second Palestinian "intifada" (September 28, 2000). The number of French Jews feeling that they are under attack has led to an increase in emigration to Israel. France has the highest number of Jews in any European country (600,000) and also the highest number of Muslims (5 to 6 million). The Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (Conseil representatif des institutions juives de France or CRIF) said that in 2005 there were 3,300 Jewish emigrations to Israel, the highest amount recorded in three decades. In 2003, the Israeli government reported that in 2002, there were 2,556 such emigrations, twice as many as had occurred in 2001. A poll from that time by JTA Global News Service found that a quarter of French Jews were considering leaving the country. The rise in these emigrations has corresponded with a rise in documented attacks upon Jews.

The printed edition of the Sunday Times on April 2, 2006 quoted figures provided by the National Consultative Committee of Human Rights. In 2001 there were 96 attacks against Jews. In 2002, there were 516 attacks. In 2003, there were 400. In 2004, 974 anti-Semitic assaults were recorded. In 2005 there were 504 such incidents. The Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions noted that calls to one telephone hotline for complaints of anti-Semitic assaults had seen an increase of 45% between 2005 and 2006. The hotline had received 112 complaints of physical assault in 2006, compared to 77 in 2005. Reported cases of anti-Semitic insult rose from 48 in 2005 to 82 in 2006. After Ilan Halimi's murder, there was a peak in such incidents, with another peak coinciding with Israel's conflict with Lebanon.

Last year, lawyer Henri Hajdenberg who formerly headed the CRIF said: "The anti-Semitism being felt in France may be ideologically rooted in anger against Israel, but it is fed by a new generation also taking up old anti-Semitic delusions - that all Jews are rich, that all Jews are powerful, that Jews are to blame for all the poverty and problems faced in immigrant communities."

Michel Friedman, chairman of the European Jewish Congress told 2003PBS in 2003: "Jews in France and Jews in other countries are again threatened by an anti-Semitism that is growing, by right-wing radicals, right-wing extremists, neo-Nazis, but also by extreme Muslims and Arabs who are using the situation for their aggression against Jewishness." The PBS reporter noted then that "There has always been a persistent strain of anti-Semitism here, although the French say it's no worse than in other countries. An increase in violence - synagogues and school buses burned or vandalized, a rabbi stabbed - started last year [2002] because of events in the Middle East, specifically Israel's treatment of Palestinians in response to suicide bombings."

Emmanuel Gagniarre from the French Embassy in Washington DC has spoken of anti-Semitic attacks: "Most of the time these incidents are the deeds of young people of Arab and North African descent, who live in the rougher neighborhoods, in the suburbs of big cities, with the backdrop and international environment that is not very conducive to peaceful relations."

The life of many young Muslims in the suburbs of Paris and other cities is grim. With little employment, a gang culture has emerged. Most of the Muslims are descended from France's former colonies in North Africa. But in many households, the older generations are sidelined by aggressive young males who scoff at their elders' conformity to French society. Many of these young people who act as heads of household find money through crime and selling drugs, but are still attracted by Islamic fundamentalism. They treat young women in manners that shock. It is in these ghettoes that the culture of the "tournante" has evolved.

The "tournante" or "gang-raped" culture was first exposed by Samira Bellil in 2002, in her book "Dans l'Enfer des Tournantes" (In the hell of the gang-raped). This described her own and other women's experiences of growing up in the dysfunctional world of the Muslim suburban ghettos. She had been passed around to be gang-raped by a man who claimed to be her boyfriend. This punishment was enacted for not being "Muslim" enough in her manners and appearance. Samira Bellil died of stomach cancer in September 2004, aged 31. Before she died, she had been a patron of the charity "Ni Putes ni Soumises" (Neither whores nor submissives).

This charity was founded by Fadel Amara, an Algerian-born campaigner for women's rights, which now has 6,000 members in 60 local branches. The cases highlighted by the charity are hideous, and expose the tyranny of the thugs in the suburbs of major French cities. 23-year old Ghofrane Haddaoui was a beautiful Tunisian/French Muslim woman who refused to go out with a younger Muslim man. On October 18, 2004, her body was found in urban wasteland in the outskirts of the southern city of Marseilles. She had been stoned to death for her "crime". In 2002 at Vitry-sur-Seine, a Parisian suburb, a 19-year old woman called Sohanne Benziane was burned alive for not going out with a man. She had been doused in gasoline by her assailant's accomplice. Jamal Derrar, her attacker, had then taunted her with a lighter, flicking it until she was weeping hysterically. He then set her alight. When Derrar was later brought to the spot to show authorities how he had killed Sohanne, youths at the housing project cheered him.

On November 13, 2006, 18-year old Chahrazad Belayni was set alight in the street near her home in Neuilly-sur-Marnes, a suburb of northeastern Paris. Her attacker was a Muslim of Pakistani origins, who was outraged that she had refused to marry him. She suffered 60% burns. In this culture, where even desirable women are killed by those who desire them, the fate of Ilan Halimi - a hated Jew - has a context. During the riots which preceded Ilan's death, a disabled woman in the Parisian suburb of Sevran was doused in gasoline on a bus. A molotov cocktail was then thrown into the vehicle, and she received third degree burns on 20% of her body.

Among the girls affiliated with the "Barbarians" gang there were "tournantes" such as Tifenn, a 17-year old from Brittany. She was not as attractive as the other women, so she acted as a "procurer", recruiting good looking girls whom she would present to Youssef Fofana. The gang members who have been charged are still awaiting their trial.

On Sunday, February 19, 2006, a thousand people marched in Paris to protest Ilan's murder. A week later a larger protest took place, to condemn racism and anti-Semitism. At a memorial service held on February 23, 2006, Joseph Sitruk, Grand Rabbi of France said: "Today, I ask all French citizens to all stand up as one man and shout loud and clear, 'Enough is enough'."

Marais is a district in Paris which has traditionally been Jewish. On Sunday May 28, 2006, 14 weeks after Ilan had died, a group of black Muslim men marched down the Rue des Roisiers in the heart of the Jewish quarter. The group was small, numbering only 30 men, but its members taunted and intimidated Jewish residents. The group carried video cameras to document their activity and the responses. Some individuals carried baseball bats. Others made Nazi salutes. They accused Jews of attacking blacks during the demonstrations which happened after Ilan's death, and called out "Death to the Jews".

The group was little known until this time. It called itself Tribu KA. Its leader was an individual who called himself "Kemi Saba". He had gained his "spiritual awakening" In Los Angeles at a Nation of Islam mosque (Mosque 27) while listening to a sermon by Tony Muhammad. Upon his return to Paris, Kemi Saba had attended an NoI branch led by Karim D. Muhammad. He recollected: "For the first time, I heard a French-speaking black "brother" translate my vision of the white man, and explain the painful situation of the black man, with a faultless eloquence. Brother Karim was for me a monument."

Kemi Saba took the Nation of Islam's theories, and blended them with some hokum of his own, that involved a third-rate understanding of ancient Egyptian history and mythology. The anti-Semitism espoused by some Nation of Islam members was amplified in the hands of Kemi Saba. Sammy Ghozlan, president of the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, explained that Tribu KA hoped "to replace the real chosen people, the Kemites, to the head of the human race".

The website of the group was taken offline on May 30 2006 on the orders of Nicolas Sarkozy, but until then, Tribu KA had claimed that it was "hunting" two Jewish groups, Betar and the Jewish Defence League. On May 19, members of the group had descended upon a gym room in a Parisian suburb, where an Israeli combat sport called krav manga was taught. They carried their video cameras, to document their berating of the people in the training session, shouting out "Are these Jews? Is this a Cohen here?"

Only 11 days after Ilan Halimi was killed, Kemi Saba had issued a public threat to Jews. The message read: "We observe that over the past few days following the death of mobile phone seller Ilan Halimi that a veritable manhunt has been in operation for Youssouf Fofana, accused by your community of being responsible for the death of one of you. We will get straight to the point, that whether our brother (Fofana) is responsible or not, we anticipate that you, on this incident, if you choose to want to brush lightly against a single hair on our brother's head, instead of letting him have a fair (legal) process, we will grab by force the curled beards of your rabbis, and believe us, your pseudo security forces of the LDJ (Jewish Defence League) or Betar will not be able to help you, when faced with the will for justice of our members. Leave the brother (Fofana) to be judged fairly or you will pay.
Kemi Saba, Fara of Tribu KA."

On February 23, 2006, Kemi Saba had been arrested for sending copies of this letter to CRIF, and MPJF, another Jewish organization.On July 26, 2006, Tribu KA was officially banned. Its members still exist, as do youngsters who were indoctrinated to hate Jews by Kemi Saba himself at a school in the suburb of Belleville.

The Muslim youths in the Paris suburbs still exist in a state of alienation and resentment, in numbers far higher than the French Jews. One national group, called the Union of France's Islamic Organizations (Union des Organisations Islamiques de France or UOIF) had issued a fatwa during the riots of late 2005. This fatwa condemned civic violence as un-Islamic. UOIF was founded in 1983, and is now the third largest of France's Muslim umbrella groups. On the group's 20th anniversary, Nicolas Sarkozy praised the leaders of UOIF and announced his pleasure that they had helped to set up the French Council for the Muslim Faith (CFCM), a body which would work with government and local authorities. Sarkozy's announcement broke with France's tradition of separation of church and state, enshrined in a law from 1905.

Worryingly, the UOIF which Sarkozy supports is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which formed the terror group Hamas, and whose spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi has sanctioned the killing of Israeli civilians.

Jews in France are vastly outnumbered by Muslims. The demographic has changed dramatically in French suburbs since the 1970s, when there were representatives from different races in most Parisian suburbs. I briefly attended a school in St Denis in the 1970s, and Jews, ancestral French, black and North African Muslim pupils were well-represented and well-integrated. Now that district, like so many suburbs in Paris and other major cities, has become predominantly filled with North African and African Muslims. Within these ghettoes, a growing number of alienated young Muslims are becoming radicalized.

Within the French Jewish communities, there are arguments over the necessity of "aliyah" or return to Israel, though there is more consensus on the issue of what is driving Jews out of France. In 2005, Roger Cukierman, president of CRIF, said that the dangers were over-emphasized, conceding that "France is not an anti-Semitic country, though violence from North African Muslims is on the increase."

Nicolas Sarkozy, whose mother is of French and Ottoman-Jewish descent, became France's president in May. His good relations with the Jewish communities in France have created an atmosphere of greater security. As a result, the figure for French Jews leaving for Israel is expected to fall this year.

For Ilan Halimi, whose life was tormented and cut short by Muslim anti-Semitism, the Jewish Agency for Israel arranged that after his death, he too should make aliyah. Since 2004, even Jewish cemeteries have not been safe from anti-Semitic attack. Ilan's family had agreed that they would "tie their fate with the State of Israel". On February 11, 2007, almost a year since his death, Ilan's body was re-interred far from the scene of his torture, laid to rest in a cemetery in Jerusalem.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 14, 2007 7:06 AM

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