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Al Jazeera
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
State-sponsored Islamophobia in France encourages violence
On June 27, El Hidaya Mosque in Roussillon in Southern France was attacked and vandalised. Windows were smashed and furniture overturned; the walls were plastered with racist flyers. Earlier the same month, a burned Quran was placed at the entrance of a mosque in Villeurbanne of Lyon. Unfortunately, virulent Islamophobia in France has not stopped at vandalism. On May 31, Hichem Miraoui, a Tunisian national, was shot dead by his French neighbour in a village near the French Riviera; another Muslim man was also shot but survived. A month earlier, Aboubakar Cisse, a Malian national, was stabbed to death in a mosque in the town of La Grand-Combeby by a French citizen. There has been a significant spike in Islamophobic acts in France – something the French authorities remain reluctant to publicly comment on. One report showed a 72 percent increase in such incidents between January and March 2025 compared with the same period in 2024. There are various factors that have contributed to this, but central among them is the French state's own Islamophobic rhetoric and anti-Muslim policies. The most recent iteration of this was the release of a report titled 'The Muslim Brotherhood and Political Islamism in France' by the French government. The document claims that the Muslim Brotherhood and 'political Islamism' are infiltrating French institutions and threatening social cohesion and names organisations and mosques as having links to the group. The report came out just days before Miraoui was shot dead and two weeks after the French authorities raided the homes of several founding members of the Brussels-based Collective Against Islamophobia in Europe (CCIE) living in France. State-promoted Islamophobia With the rise of anti-Muslim attacks and discrimination in France, it is increasingly hard to believe that the obsession of the French state and government with what they call 'Islamist separatism' is not, in fact, inciting violence against the French Muslim population. The idea that French Muslims are somehow threatening the French state through their identity expression has been championed by the French far right for decades. But it was in the late 2010s that it entered the mainstream by being embraced by centrist politicians and the media. In 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron, who also embraced the term 'separatism', called for the creation of a 'French Islam', a euphemism for domesticating and controlling Muslim institutions to serve the interest of the French state. At the heart of this project stood the idea of preserving 'social cohesion', which effectively meant suppressing dissent. In the following years, the French state started acting on its obsession with controlling Muslims with more and tougher policies. Between 2018 and 2020, it shut down 672 Muslim-run entities, including schools and mosques. In November 2020, the French authorities forced the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), a nonprofit organisation documenting Islamophobia, to dissolve; the organisation then reconstituted in Brussels. In December of that year, they targeted 76 mosques, accusing them of 'Islamist separatism' and threatening them with closure. In 2021, the French Parliament passed the so-called anti-separatism law, which included a variety of measures to supposedly combat 'Islamist separatism'. Among them was an extension of the ban on religious symbols in the public sector, restrictions on home schooling and sports associations, new rules for organisations receiving state subsidies, more policing of places of worship, etc. By January 2022, the French government reported that it had inspected more than 24,000 Muslim organisations and businesses, shut down more than 700 and seized 46 million euros ($54m) in assets. The Muslim Brotherhood boogeyman The report released in May, like many official statements and initiatives, was not aimed to clarify policy or ensure legal precision. It was supposed to politicise Muslim identity, delegitimise political dissent and facilitate a new wave of state attacks on the Muslim civil society. The report names various Muslim organisations, accusing them of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood. It also argues that campaigning against Islamophobia is a tool of the organisation. According to the report, the Muslim Brotherhood uses anti-Islamophobia activism to discredit secular policies and portray the state as racist. This framing is aimed to invalidate legitimate critiques of discriminatory laws and practices, and frames any public recognition of anti-Muslim racism as a covert Islamist agenda. The implication is clear: Muslim visibility and dissent are not just suspect — they are dangerous. The report also dives into the Islamo-gauchisme or Islamo-leftism conspiracy theories – the idea that 'Islamists' and leftists have a strategic alliance. It claims that decolonial movement is challenneling Islamism and references the March Against Islamophobia of November 10, 2019, a mass mobilisation that drew participants from across the political spectrum, including the left. The report that was commissioned under the hardline former Interior Minister and now Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, who back in 2021 accused far-right leader Marine Le Pen of being 'too soft' on Islam. All of this – the report, the legislation, the police raids and rhetorical attacks against the French Muslim community – follows the long French colonial tradition of seeking to rule over and control Muslim populations. The French political centre has had to embrace Islamophobia to contain its falling popularity. It may help with narrow electoral victories over the rising far right, but those will be short-lived. The more lasting impact will be a sigmatised, alienated Muslim community which will increasingly face state-incited violence and hatred. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Reuters
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
A far-right inspired murder forces France to wrestle with what counts as terrorism
PUGET-SUR-ARGENS, France, June 16 (Reuters) - Hichem Miraoui, a 45-year-old Tunisian barber, was at home in the south of France late in May, chatting on the phone with his mother and sisters, when a neighbour drove past and shot him dead on his doorstep. After killing Miraoui and shooting Kurdish neighbour Akif Badur in the hand, Christophe Belgembe posted four videos on Facebook, according to France's anti-terror prosecutor's office, known as PNAT. Bemoaning a state "unable to protect us, unable to send them home," Belgembe said he had "taken out two or three pieces of shit" and this was only the beginning. Belgembe surrendered to police a few hours later and confessed his guilt, the PNAT said. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. Belgembe denied any racist or terrorist motivation but the PNAT charged him with racially motivated, premeditated murder and attempted murder as part of a terrorist undertaking. It was the first time the PNAT, which can take over any criminal investigation it believes meets the criteria for terrorism, has investigated a murder inspired by far-right ideas. Terrorism sentences are tougher, and counter-terrorism forces have greater investigative powers. The PNAT's move is indicative of a broader shift in France, where jihadist attacks have fallen while racist, xenophobic or anti-religious crimes are up 11% compared with last year amid growing support for the far-right. In one of his post-attack videos, Belgembe expressed support for the far-right National Rally (RN), France's largest parliamentary party, according to a source who had seen the video but was not authorized to speak publicly about it. RN spokesperson Laurent Jacobelli did not respond to a request for comment on the video. On X, RN chief Marine Le Pen said the PNAT's decision to probe Miraoui's killing would shed light on this "heinous murder," which appeared to be "racist." Miraoui's family, Muslim leaders and anti-racism groups welcomed the decision to investigate Belgembe under terrorism laws but said French authorities had been slow to view far-right crimes as terrorism. "Even if it's late, it's welcome," said Azzedine Gaci, a rector for a large mosque near Lyon. "Each time there is a murder of this sort, it should be considered a terrorist act, as it is done to instil terror in our communities." The PNAT declined to comment on accusations it had been slow to classify far-right violence as terrorism. However, it told Reuters that it has taken on 15 other cases involving far-right suspects since its creation in 2019. None of them were homicides. Jean-Louis Bruguiere, a former anti-terrorism judge who helped create the PNAT, told Reuters that France's polarized politics "pollute the debate" around how to classify such crimes. He said the PNAT preferred "to exercise extreme caution" by only picking strong cases. Thousands protested across France in April after the murder of Aboubakar Cisse, a 22-year-old Malian who was stabbed to death in a mosque by an intruder who insulted Islam as he filmed the act, calling for his killing to be probed as terrorism. The PNAT declined to take Cisse's case. It also declined to investigate a 2022 shooting at a Kurdish centre in Paris in which three people died, sparking criticism from human rights activists and France's Kurdish community. The PNAT declined to say why it did not take up Cisse's murder or the Kurdish centre attack. However, Nimes Prosecutor Cecile Gensac, whose office took Cisse's case, said the PNAT declined to investigate as the killer had no ideology and only acted out of "an obsessive desire to kill". In a 2023 PNAT decision seen by Reuters, it said that while the Kurdish centre attacker had a "hatred of foreigners", he did not appear to be driven by any ideology and no evidence of far-right links was found at his home. Bruguiere defended the PNAT's decision to investigate Miraoui's murder, saying that even if Belgembe had acted alone, he viewed his act within a larger ideological framework "that transcends the act itself." Under French law, terrorism is a crime where the author has the "goal of seriously disturbing public order through intimidation or terror." Olivier Cahn, a law professor at Cergy-Paris University, said some of the PNAT's previous decisions underlined how open to interpretation France's definition of terrorism is. "Terrorism is not the act," he said. "Terrorism is whatever the PNAT says is terrorism." The PNAT did not respond to a request for comment on Cahn's remarks. The PNAT investigated 66 cases of jihadist terrorism last year, down nearly a third compared with 2019. Meanwhile, racism is rising, according to a 2024 report from France's human rights commission. There were 79 anti-Muslim acts recorded by the interior ministry between January and March 2025, a 72% rise compared to the same period in 2024. Belgembe and his victims lived in Puget-sur-Argens, a town in a southeastern region of France that has long been a stronghold of far-right support. In last year's legislative elections, the RN won nearly 60% of votes in the town. Badur, the Kurdish neighbour who was shot in the hand, said his only conversation with Belgembe involved being asked about his nationality and residency status. An activist with the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), Badur said he left Turkey two years ago for fear of imprisonment. "I fled racism in my country, only to face racism here," he said.
Al Jazeera
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
In a first, France opens terror case for racist killing of Tunisian barber
On May 31, a Saturday, Hichem Miraoui was at his home in southeastern France on a video call with his sister Hanen, who lives nearby, and his mother in Tunisia. It was late morning in Puget-sur-Argens, his village near the French Riviera. Suddenly, Hanen heard him exclaim. The phone then dropped to the floor and the line went silent. Two hours later, Mouna Miraoui, his cousin, was at the Draguignan police station a few kilometres north, identifying his body. Miraoui had been shot five times and killed in what French investigators – in a first – are identifying as a possibly racially motivated act of domestic terrorism. 'It's a living hell, it's unbearable,' Mouna told Al Jazeera by phone. 'It was a shock for everyone. His sister fainted. Imagine if that day I had been invited to his house for dinner or a drink. I have young kids, what would have happened then?' French investigators have opened a terrorism investigation in the murder case in which another victim was injured. A man identified as Christophe Belgembe has been arrested. The suspect regularly reposted content from France's far-right National Rally party. He has admitted to shooting Miraoui but pleaded not guilty to the racially motivated nature of the crime. In several videos uploaded to Facebook, which have since been deleted, the suspect appeared to have congratulated himself for 'getting rid of 2-3 pieces of junk', the French news site 20 Minutes reported. According to one of Miraoui's sisters, Belgembe was well known among residents for his xenophobic views, in particular a 'hatred of Arabs'. Family members have told various media outlets that Miraoui, who was in his forties, had felt increasingly threatened by Belgembe, the legal owner of several guns as a member of a shooting sports club, in the days and weeks leading up to the alleged murder. A hairdresser who was close to his five sisters, Miraoui had been planning to return to Tunisia to visit his sick mother for the first time in eight years. The alleged murder led to protests across France and brought to light what antiracism groups are calling an 'ambient climate' of anti-Arab hate and xenophobia. Between January and March of 2025, 79 Islamophobic hate crimes took place across France, an increase of more than 70 percent relevant to that same period in 2024, according to the latest statistics from France's interior minister. On Sunday, several thousand people gathered in the southern French city of Marseille and Miraoui's hometown to protest against rising hate crimes, raising signs reading 'racism has killed again' and 'rest in peace, Hichem'. 'Hichem's death is the fruit of an increasingly hardline atmosphere that has been rising for several months and years and that sets in a bit more every day,' the family's lawyer, Mourad Battikh, said in a statement. Over the past year, three men have been killed in what appear to be racially motivated hate crimes but Miraoui's is the first to be investigated by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office, or PNAT. According to Zelie Heran, legal head of the antiracism watchdog SOS Racisme, the opening of a terrorism investigation means more resources and a potentially fast-tracked trial. She questioned why the PNAT had not been activated in other similar and recent cases. 'While we can certainly commend the [PNAT] for taking up this case because it is a case where there is a desire to disrupt public order and spread terror on the part of this person who encouraged others to kill foreigners, we can still be surprised and critical of the fact that this is the first time [they] have taken up this type of case,' said Heran. She suggested that French politicians, including Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, have allowed a hateful climate to fester. Retailleau has previously repeated debunked claims about being 'flooded' by migrants and recently introduced a law to ban headscarves from public universities. This 'obsession with Islam and foreigners has translated into actions by the population', including the snatching of headscarves from women's heads and verbal abuse, Heran said. Statistics shared with Al Jazeera support these claims. In the first five months of 2025, SOS Racisme documented a 44 percent increase in calls to its anti-discrimination hotline compared with the same period a year ago. This rise is even sharper regarding anti-Arab and Islamophobic incidents, which have increased by 68 percent year on year. In some incidents, callers have described damage to property, including at mosques. In more urgent cases, physical violence has been reported. In April, Aboubakar Cisse, a Malian man in his early twenties, was stabbed 57 times as he prepared his mosque for prayer in La Grand-Combe, also in southern France. Though the attacker allegedly voiced a statement deemed incredibly offensive to Muslims as he killed Cisse, the crime is not being investigated as an act of terrorism but as a race-based assassination. The killing of Cisse followed the August 2024 murder of Djamel Bendjaballah, a Tunisian man who was run over by the driver of an SUV in a crime his family has tried, unsuccessfully, to qualify as a hate crime. The suspect was a member of a far-right survivalist group and the ex-husband of Bendjaballah's partner. On Wednesday, the body of Hichem Miraoui was returned to Tunisia – tragically reuniting him with his ailing mother. Mouna Miraoui hopes that his death will be a catalyst for change. She wears a headscarf and said that she no longer feels safe in France. 'I get the feeling that there's a generalised hatred that's building,' she told Al Jazeera. 'We expect justice to be done. We expect this man's conviction to set an example for everyone, so that people don't think this is normal and trivialise it.' Heran, at SOS Racisme, said, 'All we can do is call for awareness of the urgency for antiracist rhetoric and the implementation of policies to curb this phenomenon on the part of politicians, the media and citizens.'
LeMonde
06-06-2025
- LeMonde
Charged with the murder of Tunisian national Hichem Miraoui in southern France, Christophe Belgembe denies any racist motive
Christophe Belgembe, the suspect in the murder of Tunisian national Hichem Miraoui on May 31 in the southern French town Puget-sur-Argens, was charged on Thursday, June 5, with "murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, motivated by race, ethnicity, nationality or religion." This judicial investigation is the 20 th opened by the French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) since 2017 for acts inspired by far-right ideology, most of which were foiled attack plots. However, this is the first time an actual attack – in this case a murder – linked to this ideology has been treated as a terrorist act. In a statement released on Thursday, the PNAT said that Belgembe, 53, had admitted to the facts while in police custody. Married, without children and unemployed, he nevertheless denied "any racist motivation" as well as "any terrorist intent." But the PNAT noted that prior to his deadly rampage, he had posted a video on Facebook where he declared: "French people (...) wake up, go find them where they are," pledged "allegiance to the blue, white and red," and announced his intention to say "stop to Islamics" and to "take out a few, just by leaving my house, all the undocumented [migrants]."
Nahar Net
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Nahar Net
Suspect in murder of Tunisian man to appear before French judge
by Naharnet Newsdesk 05 June 2025, 12:24 A Frenchman accused of murdering his Tunisian neighbor in the south of France will appear before an anti-terrorism judge on Thursday, the national anti-terror prosecutor's office said. Christophe B. is accused of killing Hichem Miraoui in an attack Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau described as both "racist" and "anti-Muslim". Anti-terrorism prosecutors have taken over the case, the first time a far-right racist attack has been treated as a "terrorist" offence since the unit was created in 2019.
