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Muslims in Neglected Paris Suburbs Worry Conditions Could Produce More Terrorists

5 minute read

Just past the grandeur of postcard Paris, with its boulevards and old palaces, lies what seems like a different world: The banlieues, or suburbs, vast stretches of small brick shops and mosques, and crumbling high-rise apartment blocks, which were thrown up hurriedly 50 years to house the huge influx of immigrants from the French-speaking countries of North and West Africa, and now are home to hundreds of thousands of French-born Muslims.

Five decades on – and not for the first time – violent events are forcing the French and their government to grapple with the seemingly intractable problem of how to bridge the divide between two very different strata of French society: The powerful and the peripheral. France has about five million Muslims, Europe’s biggest Islamic popoulation. And it is within these low-income cités, or housing projects, outside Paris, where youth unemployment rates hover around 25%, that the Charlie Hebdo attackers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, 34 and 32 respectively, spent years of their young adult lives before dying in a blaze of police gunfire on Friday. Amedy Coulibaly, 32, the gunman who fatally shot a policewoman on Wednesday and then seized control of a kosher supermarket on Friday before police killed him at sundown, also most recently lived in a Paris banlieue. In all, 17 people died at the hands of these three attackers, including eight journalists and three police officers.

As Parisians absorb the enormity of this week’s killings, residents in some of these banlieues say their areas need urgent changes – better education and more job opportunities – to reverse the growing drift of young Muslims like the Kouachi brothers toward radical groups bent on advancing their beliefs through violence. “These terrorists carrying out such attacks in the name of Islam tend to have lives marked by frustration and failure,” says Djemoui Bennaceur, 53, an Algerian-born resident in the suburb of La Courneuve, a low-income district situated just five miles from affluent central Paris.

Large Crowds Rally Against Terrorism in Paris After Attacks

Thousands of people gather at Republique square in Paris, Jan. 11, 2015.
Thousands of people gather at Place de la République in Paris, Jan. 11, 2015. Peter Dejong—AP
French President Francois Hollande is surrounded by head of states including Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Council President Donald Tusk and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as they attend the solidarity march in the streets of Paris Jan. 11, 2015.
French President Francois Hollande is surrounded by head of states including Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Council President Donald Tusk and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as they attend the solidarity march in the streets of Paris Jan. 11, 2015. Philippe Wojazer—Reuters
Demonstrators make their way along Boulevrd Voltaire in a unity rally in Paris following the recent terrorist attacks on Jan. 11, 2015 in Paris.
Demonstrators make their way along Boulevrd Voltaire in a unity rally in Paris following the recent terrorist attacks on Jan. 11, 2015 in Paris.Christopher Furlong—Getty Images
which has become a symbol for the cartoonists and editors killed at Charlie Hebdo
A man holds a pencil, which has become a symbol for the cartoonists and editors killed at Charlie Hebdo, as he takes part in a solidarity march in the streets of Paris, Jan. 11, 2015. Eric Gaillard—Reuters
Families and relatives walk and hold banners reading 'Charlie' during a march to honor victims of the terrorist attacks and show unity, in Paris, Jan.11, 2015.
Families and relatives walk and hold banners reading 'Charlie' during a march to honor victims of the terrorist attacks and show unity, in Paris, Jan.11, 2015. Julien WarnandJ—EPA
Demonstrators make their way along Place de la République during a mass unity rally following the recent terrorist attacks on Jan. 11, 2015 in Paris.
Demonstrators make their way along Place de la République during a mass unity rally following the recent terrorist attacks on Jan. 11, 2015 in Paris.Dan Kitwood—Getty Images
A man holds a giant pencil, which has become a symbol for the cartoonists and editors killed at Charlie Hebdoas as he takes part in the solidarity march in the streets of Paris, Jan. 11, 2015.
A man holds a giant pencil, which has become a symbol for the cartoonists and editors killed at Charlie Hebdo, as as he takes part in the solidarity march in the streets of Paris, Jan. 11, 2015. Stephane Mahe—Reuters
People gather at the Place de la Nation in Paris, Jan. 11, 2015.
People gather at the Place de la Nation in Paris, Jan. 11, 2015. Yoan Valat—EPA
A balloon reading "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) is held at Place de la Bastille during the solidarity march on Jan. 11, 2015 in Paris.
A balloon reading "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) is held at Place de la Bastille during the solidarity march on Jan. 11, 2015 in Paris.Joel Saget—AFP/Getty Images
A general view shows hundreds of thousands of French citizens taking part in a solidarity march in the streets of Paris, Jan. 11, 2015.
A general view shows hundreds of thousands of French citizens taking part in a solidarity march in the streets of Paris, Jan. 11, 2015. Eric Gaillard—Reuters

With French youth now wired and online, says Bennaceur, who emigrated to France in 1989 and is active in local politics, there are now plenty more opportunities for terrorist groups to recruit those stuck in dead-end suburban lives. “They are easily manipulated, particularly in a world where terrorists are experts in social media,” says Bennaceur, who runs a small shuttle service. That might partly explain the Kouachi brothers’ path to radical jihad, from a life of relative aimlessness. After the two became the prime suspects in last Wednesday’s massacre, during which they killed 12 people, Chérif’s former lawyer Vincent Ollivier described him to a French reporter as “part of a group of young people who were a little lost, confused, not really fanatics in the proper sense of the word.”

Both brothers worked occasional menial jobs and struggled to find steady work during their years living in low-income areas around Paris and elsewhere, according to French media reports this week. Chérif, who spent 18 months in jail in 2008 and 2009 for his jihadist activies, worked for a while delivering pizzas and in a supermarket in a Paris suburb. Orphaned at a young age, the brothers grew up partly in an orphanage in the western city of Rennes.

Older immigrants say they have witnessed a steady dwindling in young people’s prospects. “Things were not this way when I first came here 25 years ago,” Bennaceur says. “There were more opportunities to work and study. Since the financial crisis, that has changed and tensions have risen.”

When the Paris suburbs exploded in weeks of violent protests in November 2005, then-president Jacques Chirac vowed to pour billions into the banlieues with new housing, infrastructure and jobs. While there are some signs of that, investment has dried up since the recession hit in 2008, and as France has struggled with a ballooning public deficit. “After the riots the state did nothing,” says Farid Rebaa Jaafar, 52, vice president of the Mosque of Drancy, a suburb adjoining La Courneuve. “It became worse and worse.”

At least as urgent is anti-Muslim racism and what residents say is the persistent stigmatization of their neighborhoods. “The banlieues are still seen as shadow zones in France,” says student Sofiane Bouarif, 18, who was born and raised in La Courneuve, of Algerian immigrant parents.

Several French surveys have shown that many banlieue youth struggle to land job interviews — let alone jobs — solely because they have Muslim or African names, or because their addresses have zip codes signaling that they live in the poorer suburbs of Paris. Anti-racism organizations such as France’s SOS Racisme have long argued that job applications should be anonymous as a way of redressing the racial imbalances, and that the common French practice of including photographs on resumés reinforces racial stereotyping within companies looking to hire staff.

Many second and third-generation French from North or West African parents feel socially excluded from mainstream French society, despite being born within a half-hour’s train ride from the center of Paris. “They feel neither North African nor French,” says Jaafar, who arrived in Paris from Tunisia in 1979.

Jaafar says that for about five or six years, Muslim community leaders like himself have sounded the alarm about the need for change. “The state has not listened,” he says, adding that perhaps that change might finally come after the shock of this week’s violence.

Hundreds of Thousands March for Victims in France

People take part in a silent procession for victims of the shooting at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, Jan. 10, 2015, in Nice, southeastern France.
People take part in a silent procession for victims of the shooting at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, Jan. 10, 2015, in Nice, southeastern France. Lionel Cironneau—AP
A man holds a French flag during a silent walk for victims of the shooting at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, Jan. 10, 2015, in Nice.
A man holds a French flag during a silent walk for victims of the shooting at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, Jan. 10, 2015, in Nice.Lionel Cironneau—AP
Tens of thousands of people some holding up signs that read, "Je suis Charlie" march during a rally along the sea front in the Mediterranean city of Nice, on January 10, 2015.
Tens of thousands of people some holding up signs that read, "Je suis Charlie" march in Nice, on Jan. 10, 2015.Valery Hache—AFP/Getty Images
Demonstrators hold signs that reads "Je suis Charlie" during a rally in Nantes on Jan. 10, 2015,.
Demonstrators hold signs that reads "Je suis Charlie" during a rally in Nantes on Jan. 10, 2015,.Jean-Sebastien Evrard—AFP/Getty Images
A man hold a rose and pencil during a rally at the Memorial Square in Caen on Jan. 10, 2015.
A man hold a rose and pencil during a rally at the Memorial Square in Caen on Jan. 10, 2015.Charly Truballeeau—AFP/Getty Images
Thousands peoples walks during a tribute to the victims of the attack on the Paris headquarters of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, in Toulouse, Jan. 10, 2014.
Thousands peoples walks during a tribute to the victims of the attack on the Paris headquarters of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, in Toulouse, Jan. 10, 2014. Guillaume Horcahuel—EPA
Children lay flowers outside the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket near Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris
Children lay flowers outside the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket near Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris, Jan. 10, 2015.Yves Herman—Reuters
Messages left by people visiting a makeshift memorial are pasted to a wall near the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, Jan. 10, 2015.
Messages left by people visiting a makeshift memorial are pasted to a wall near the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, Jan. 10, 2015. David Azia—AP

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