Violence unveiled: Paris clashes sparked after police stop Muslim woman

Published time: July 20, 2013 16:36
Edited time: July 21, 2013 09:49

Hundreds have clashed with police in a Paris suburb after a Muslim woman was stopped for wearing a veil. The Muslim community contests the police version of events, while nationalists blame France’s immigration policy.

A crowd of some 250 people collected outside the police station of the gritty Paris suburb of Trappes in response to the arrest of a Muslim man who police say assaulted them after they checked the identity of a woman wearing an Islamic veil.

“Her husband reacted in a hostile fashion, insulting and hitting the policemen. The man was placed in custody for that reason,” Jean-Marc Galland, a senior official for Yvelines region, told Reuters.

“On Friday, there were demands for clarification from people in the town who did not understand the arrest,” he added.

But Prosecutor Vincent Lesclous later told reporters that the man had in-fact tried to strangle a police officer.

The crowd soon turned violent, setting fire to bins and hurling stones at the police and the police station.

In response around a dozen vans carrying riot police were dispatched to the area and police responded with tear gas, while a police helicopter buzzed overhead.

Four police officers were injured and a 14-year old boy suffered a serious eye injury from a flying projectile, police said.

A witness said that the crowd was calling on the police to release the husband.

“They [the police] didn’t want to listen and it got out of control. Trappes is a big family. When you attack us we’re going to respond,” the man, who gave his name as Sofiane, told the French television channel iTele.

However, the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) disagreed with the official version of events and published a statement on its website, claiming to be from the wife of the arrested man where she accused the police of being abusive and using unnecessary force.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mLB-M4EQOE

She said that a police officer grabbed her by the veil, spoke to her aggressively and violently pushed her mother.

“I turned and I saw my husband being held on the ground by two policemen who were putting him in handcuffs. Once in the police car they yelled at us like we were animals,” the statement from a woman named Hajar, read.

The CCIF itself said that the actions of the police reflected that “racism and Islamaphobia” are now “clearly institutionalized and legitimized” in France.

France banned any item of clothing that conceals the face while in public in 2011, which includes the burqa and niqab, which is sometimes worn by Muslim women.

The ‘burqa ban’ as the law became known sparked a wave of protests and is a highly divisive issue in France, which has the biggest population of Muslims of any country in Western Europe; although French officials estimate that of 5-6 million Muslims only about 2,000 wear a full face veil.

Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Front Party, was quick to blame Friday’s violence on the problems associated with mass immigration.

She said it was time to “re-conquest every square meter of the national territory” as those responsible for Friday’s disturbances had “taken control of large parts of the Republic”.

“Governments must stop trembling before thugs and finally stand up to them with total inflexibility and extreme firmness,” said Le Pen, who is herself facing charges of incitement to hatred and discrimination, after comments in 2011 where she compared Muslim immigrants in France to German soldiers during the Nazi occupation of France in the Second World War.

http://rt.com/news/muslim-veil-clashes-police-366/

Teen girl attacked near Paris for wearing hijab

Wed Aug 14, 2013 8:21PM

A teenage girl has been assaulted near Paris for wearing an Islamic veil, the latest in a wave of violent attacks against the Muslim community in France.


The incident occurred on Monday afternoon when two “European-looking” men confronted the 16-year-old who was leaving a friend’s house in the Paris suburb of Trappes.

The men shouted racists and anti-Muslim insults at her before attacking her with a box cutter, said the victim. They then tore off her veil, pushed her to the ground and hit her.

The assailants fled the scene in a car after a third man intervened.

The teen was taken to hospital where medical staff treated her for light wounds on her face and throat.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls on Tuesday condemned the attack, expressing “indignation" at the move.

“I severely condemn this newest demonstration of anti-Muslim hatred and intolerance,” Valls told French television BFMTV, saying the police had started an operation to track down the perpetrators.

The attack is not the first acts of Islamophobia in France, where assaults against Muslims have hiked by 60 percent in recent months.

On Tuesday, a man was arrested for writing Islamophobic tags across several buildings in the southern city of Avignon.

A French military serviceman was also detained on August 11 on charges of planning an attack on a mosque.

Several Muslim women in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil were assaulted in June by racist elements who tore off their veils.

One of the victims suffered miscarriage as a result of the attack.

CAH/MRS/MHB

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/14/318752/french-teen-attacked-for-wearing-hijab/

The muslims should simply abide by the french local law. The use of Hijab has been outlawed in france, let dem simply abide by the law. This is not to sanction the actions of terrorist who take law into their hand.


There is fear of terror accross europe hence most western country made it mandatory for everybody to make their face visible to the public (vis-a-vis CCTV cameras) should in case an incident need be invextigated.

France is gradually paying the price for being too accepting and tolerant. Out of all western countries, it's the one with the highest number of Muslim population, wow!

No wonder the French government imposed the veil ban so as foreigners wouldn't mistaken their country for a Muslim one, lol!