PARIS (AP) – More than a dozen French police officers descended on a small private school in Paris, blocked 92 students in their classrooms, took pictures everywhere even inside the refrigerator and grilled them. school principal.
“It was as if he had moved into a drug deal,” said Hanane Loukili, director and co-founder of MHS High School and High School, recalling the November 17 scene.
Loukili did not know then, but a team from Cell to fight radical Islam and the withdrawal of the community or CLIR had arrived for an inspection. Dragnet matures schools, shops, clubs or mosques to destroy “radicalization”. Within a week, a shaken Loukili informed the students that their school was closing.
Loukili insists she is not radical, but such operations illustrate the extent of French efforts to combat extremism as lawmakers prepare to vote on a bill to extinguish it on Tuesday..
The MHS school had an unusual profile. He was secular and co-educational, but allowed Muslim students to wear handkerchiefs to class – which is forbidden in French public schools – and to pray during breaks. Unlike private Muslim schools in France, where scarves are also allowed, MHS did not offer religion classes.
Loukili and others at the school claim that it was a perfect target in what some say is an uncomfortable climate for Muslims in France..
Washing France of radicals and their breeding grounds is a priority for President Emmanuel Macron in a bloodthirsty nation of terrorist attacks, including the beheading of a teacher outside his school in a Paris suburb in October, followed by a deadly attack inside the basilica from Nice.
The proposed legislation is meant to re-anchor secularism in a changing France, where Muslims are increasingly visible and Islam – religion no. 2 of the nation – gets a stronger voice.
Legislation, expected to pass Tuesday’s vote in the lower house of parliament, will also extend repression.
Along with the bill, challenged by some Muslims, politicians and others, such strong-arm inspections risk exacerbating the climate of suspicion that many Muslims feel in a country where the vast majority of Muslims do not have extremist views.
Loukili, herself a Muslim, is well aware of the major fire danger problems facing the school, but fervently denied in an Associated Press interview any connection to radicalism by her or the school staff, which was opened in 2015.
It was not until December 9 that Loukili learned that her situation was worse than she thought. A statement from the Police Headquarters and the prosecutors’ office suggested that the closure was part of growing pressure to “fight all forms of separatism” – the word Macron coined for extremists who undermine the nation’s values.
Dragnet-type raids, such as those launched against Loukili’s school, have unearthed soft spots locally to prevent Islamist radicalization. Now they arrive all over the country, with police officers accompanied by education or other specialists, depending on the target.
In December alone, the teams carried out 476 raids and closed 36 units, according to Interior Ministry figures. Since November 2019, 3,881 units have been inspected and 126 have been closed, mostly small businesses, but also two schools.
One was an underground school with no windows or educational programs, along with sports clubs that included compulsory preaching and prayer. Five were closed.
The proposed law and the “Fighting Cell Against Radical Islam” program, led by prefects in each region, are just part of a multi-layered operation to destroy what authorities call “enemies of the Republic.” The mayors of the cities considered most affected by the extremist threat were asked to sign a letter agreeing to cooperate in the hunt for the radicals, the AP found out.
The cell to fight radical Islam will also get a boost from the planned law, which would provide new legal instruments for closing the facilities.
“Today we are forced to use administrative motives to close non-compliant units,” said an official close to the minister of citizenship, Marlene Schiappa, who oversees the Cell to Fight Radical Islam program and is also a sponsor of the proposed project. right, along with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
The official, unauthorized to speak publicly, could not address the case of the MHS school. Police also did not comment.
The school’s problems began more than a year ago, with safety issues mainly related to its large building. Loukili, his principal and math teacher, was ordered to close the school, stop teaching and run any future schools. He returns to court March 17.
“I think he (accuses) us of separatism because they needed to set an example,” Loukili said.
“I was scared … I didn’t understand,” said Omar, a 17-year-old MHS student who was in class when police arrived. “They took pictures,” and some officers insulted the teenagers, he said.
Omar was among those who took part in a protest in Paris on Sunday against the bill.
A mother who had to strive to find new schools for her children after school closed said her son is fine, but her 15-year-old daughter, who wears a headscarf, had to go to a Muslim school, where she is allowed. head covering, but where boys and girls are separated in classrooms and at lunch.
Her daughter, unhappy in the harsh weather conditions, “comes home with a knot in her stomach,” said the woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Rafika, to protect her daughter.
Jean-Riad Kechaou, a working-class history teacher in the Paris suburbs of Chelles, is angry with his teenage Muslim students.
“It comes from this constant stigmatization of their religion,” he said. “In the head of a teenager of 12, 13, 14, 15 years, everything mixes and what comes out is that his religion was completely dirty and his fingers are pointed at him.”
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Masha Macpherson of Paris contributed to this report.