Tensions as Paris suburb tries to stop Muslim street prayers

[Singularity]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/...ayers-51061119


Tensions as Paris suburb tries to stop Muslim street prayers
By JEFFREY SCHAEFFER AND NICOLAS GARRIGA, ASSOCIATED PRESS CLICHY-LA-GARENNE, France — Nov 10, 2017, 11:53 AM ET
Clichy la Garennes mayor Remi Muzueau, center right, and President of the Regional Council of the Ile-de-France region Valerie Pecresse, center left, demonstrate against Muslim street prayers, in the Paris suburb of Clichy la Garenne, Friday, Nov. 1The Associated Press
Clichy la Garenne's mayor Remi Muzueau, center right, and President of the Regional Council of the Ile-de-France region Valerie Pecresse, center left, demonstrate against Muslim street prayers, in the Paris suburb of Clichy la Garenne, Friday, Nov. 10, 2017. Tensions have erupted as residents and the mayor of a Paris suburb tried to block the town's Muslims from praying in the street in a dispute that reflects nationwide problems over mosque shortages. Banner reads "Stop to the Illegals Prayers". (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)more +
Tensions erupted Friday as French officials and residents of a Paris suburb tried to block Muslims from praying in the street — a dispute that reflects nationwide problems with mosque shortages.


No one was hurt in the skirmishes in Clichy-la-Garenne, but both sides appeared to be digging in their heels in the dispute over prayer space in the town.


Carrying a large banner reading "Stop Illegal Street Prayers," Mayor Remi Muzeau led more than 100 demonstrators Friday in a show of force to dissuade Muslims from praying on the town's market square. Worshippers have been praying there every Friday for months to protest the closure of a prayer room.


A few dozen worshippers tried to pray anyway but sought to avoid confrontation with the protesters and retreated to a less visible spot. But the demonstrators squeezed them toward a wooden wall.


As worshippers chanted "Allahu akbar," or "God is great" in Arabic, the larger group of demonstrators loudly sang the French national anthem. Some held French flags and a crucifix aloft.


Amid pushing and shoving, a banner the worshippers were carrying reading "United for a Grand Mosque of Clichy" was torn down.


Police with shields then formed a human barricade between the groups and Muslims eventually unrolled their rugs on the pavement, took off their shoes and held their prayers.


When the incident was over, the worshippers clapped, and the mayor pledged to come back again next week — as did the Muslim worshippers.


"We'll do it every Friday if necessary," said Muzeau.


"I must assure the tranquility and freedom of the people in my city," he said. "We must not allow this to happen in our country. Our country, the French Republic is tarnished."


Hamid Kazed, president of the Union of Muslim Associations of Clichy, who led the prayers, said, "We are going to continue until there's a dialogue for a definitive venue."


"That's what they want. To divide the citizens," he said. "We are not fundamentalists. We are for Islam of France."


The demonstrators were joined by the president of the Paris region, Valerie Pecresse, and officials and residents of other Paris suburbs


While Islam has long been France's No. 2 religion, the country has a chronic shortage of mosques for its estimated 5 million Muslims. Muslims in several towns have resorted to praying in the streets, fueling the anti-immigrant sentiment of far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen.


Clichy Muslims had been renting a prayer hall from City Hall. But the town's mayor decided to turn that space into a library for the town's 60,000 residents, and the prayer hall was shut down in March following a court battle.


City Hall says Muslims can worship at a new Islamic cultural and prayer center, already used by hundreds, that the town inaugurated last year. However some Muslims say the new facility is too small, remote and doesn't meet safety standards.

[Singularity]

http://www.newsweek.com/paris-muslim...scuffle-711978


PARIS MUSLIMS FIGHT FOR RIGHT TO PRAY ON THE STREETS AFTER SCUFFLE WITH LAWMAKERS
BY CRISTINA MAZA ON 11/15/17 AT 10:45 AM

A group of Parisian Muslims announced Wednesday it is taking local politicians to court after a group of 100 lawmakers physically prevented 200 Muslims from praying on the streets of a Paris suburb.


The scuffle between the Parisian lawmakers and the praying Muslims took place last week. Local Muslim leaders say that Remi Muzeau, the right-wing mayor of Clichy, a multiethnic suburb of Paris, is trying to divide its citizens.


“You think it is a luxury to pray on the street?” Hamid Kazed, head of the Clichy Muslim Union, asked reporters.


Muslims have been praying regularly on the streets of Clichy since the mayor’s office closed a local mosque in March and transformed it into a library.


Mayor Muzeau says that local Muslims have been urged to use a new, nearby mosque, but that many have refused to go and are instead praying in the streets. In response, a group of lawmakers, led by the head of Paris’s regional government, arrived in Clichy last week and disrupted a group of around 200 all-male Muslims who were praying there.


The lawmakers wore sashes the color of the French flag and sang the national anthem, interrupting the praying men. Experts say this is a typical response from French politicians, who often promote the notion that France is a secular society and people should not make public religious displays.


“There are many Muslim citizens of France, but the odd thing is that the idea of France is more about absorbing others and having them come to French modes of behavior instead of having a more diverse culture,” Francis Burwell, a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Newsweek.


“In France, there has been a huge discussion about the use of the hijab, even though modern France is an incredibly diverse society.”


Muslim leaders in Clichy argue that their religion does not prevent them from also being French.


“We are not Salafists, we are not fundamentalists, we are for an Islam of France, and we are for an Islam that respects the republic,” Kazed stressed, in defense of his group’s use of the streets for prayer.


Others Muslims in the area argued that the lawmakers’ use of national symbols was discriminatory.


“They were singing La Marseillaise, throwing it in our faces, even though we’re French people here. We’re French. Long live France!” one Clichy Muslim told French media.


Lawmakers, however, argue that using public space for prayer is unacceptable.


“We need places of worship and decent ones for everyone,” Valérie Pécresse, president of Paris’s Ile-de-France region, told French media. “But at the same time, we need for everybody to live in a respectful manner with each other. And the public space cannot be unlawfully occupied.”


Pécresse was accompanied by Clichy’s mayor, Muzeau, who called for street prayers to be banned outright.


Street prayer has previously been an issue among France’s far-right politicians. In 2011, the far-right nationalist politician Marine Le Pen compared the sight of Muslims praying on the streets to the Nazi occupation of France during World War II.