PARIS (AP) – More than three dozen French police raided a small private school in Paris, blocked the 92 students inside their classrooms, took pictures everywhere, even inside the refrigerator, and interrogated the school principal .
“It was like they were going into a drug business,” said Hanane Loukili, the principal and co-founder of the MHS elementary and high school, recalling the November 17 scene.
Loukili did not know at the time, but a team from the Cell to Fight Radical Islam and Withdraw from the Community, or CLIR, had arrived for an inspection. The network sweeps schools, shops, clubs or mosques to end “radicalization”. Within a week, a shaken Loukili informed students that his school was closing.
Loukili insists it is not radical, but such operations illustrate the extent of French efforts to combat extremism, as lawmakers prepare to vote on a bill on Tuesday aimed at eliminating it.
The MHS school had an unusual profile. It was secular and mixed, but it allowed Muslim students to wear headscarves – which are prohibited in French public schools – and to pray during breaks. Unlike private Muslim schools in France, where headscarves are also permitted, the MHS did not offer courses in religion.
Loukili and others at school say he was a perfect target in what some say is an uncomfortable climate for French Muslims.
Cleaning France of radicals and their breeding grounds is a priority for President Emmanuel Macron in a nation bloodied by terrorist attacks, including the beheading of a teacher outside his school in a Paris suburb in October, followed by a deadly attack within the city. Nice basilica.
The proposed legislation aims to re-anchor secularism in an ever-changing France, where Muslims are increasingly visible and Islam – the country’s second religion – is gaining a stronger voice.
The legislation, which is expected to pass Tuesday’s vote in the lower house of parliament, will also expand the crackdown.
Along with the bill, contested by some Muslims, politicians and others, these violent inspections are likely to heighten the 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 main fire risk problems her school faced, but she vehemently denied in an interview with the Associated Press any connection with radicalism by her or school officials, which opened in 2015.
Only on December 9 did Loukili learn that her situation was more serious than she thought. A statement from the Police Prefecture and the Public Prosecutor’s Office suggested that the closure was part of a growing effort to “combat all forms of separatism” – the word coined by Macron for extremists who undermine the nation’s values.
Dragnet attacks such as those launched against the school in Loukili have unearthed weaknesses at the local level to nip Islamic radicalization in the bud. They now arrive across the country, with police accompanied by educators or other specialists, depending on the target.
In December alone, the teams carried out 476 invasions and closed 36 establishments, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior. Since November 2019, 3,881 establishments have been inspected and 126 closed, mostly small businesses, but also two schools.
One was an underground school with no windows or educational program, along with sports clubs that included preaching and mandatory prayer. Five were closed.
The proposed law and the Cell to Fight Radical Islam program, led by mayors in each region, are just part of a multi-faceted operation to defeat what the authorities call “enemies of the Republic”. The mayors of the cities considered most affected by the extremist threat were asked to sign a document agreeing to cooperate in the hunt for radicals, the AP found.
The Radical Islam Fighting Cell would also gain momentum with the planned law, which would provide new legal tools to close facilities.
“Today, we are obliged to use administrative reasons to close establishments that do not respect the law,” said an official close to the Minister of Citizenship, Marlene Schiappa, who oversees the Cell to Fight Radical Islam program and also sponsors the proposal with the Minister. Interior Gerald Darmanin.
The official, not authorized to speak publicly, was unable to address the MHS school case. The police also declined to comment.
The school’s problems started more than a year ago, with safety issues mainly related to its large building. Loukili, its director and mathematics teacher, was ordered to close the school, stop teaching and not run any future educational establishment. She returns to court on March 17.
“I think they (accuse us) of separatism because they needed to set an example,” said Loukili.
“I was scared … we didn’t understand,” said Omar, a 17-year-old MHS student who was in the room when the police arrived. “They were taking pictures” and some policemen insulted the teenagers, he said.
Omar was among those who participated in a protest in Paris on Sunday against the bill.
A mother who had to struggle to find new schools for her children after the school closed said that her son is fine, but her 15-year-old daughter, who wears a headscarf, had to move to a Muslim school where the veil is allowed, but where boys and girls are separated within the classrooms and at lunch.
Her daughter, unhappy with the harsh climate, “comes home with a stomach upset,” said the woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Rafika, to protect her daughter.
Jean-Riad Kechaou, a history teacher in the working-class suburb of Chelles, Paris, sees anger in his teenage Muslim students.
“It comes from this permanent stigmatization of your religion,” he said. “In the head of a teenager of 12, 13, 14, 15 years old, everything gets confused and what comes out is that his religion was all dirty and pointing fingers at him”.
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Masha Macpherson in Paris contributed to this report.