Pave: Allah Behind Bars

Le jour 350 de Sarko

The question of discrimination and justice is one of the key political questions of our society, and still, it is not given much importance.

Sebastian Roché,
Directeur de recherche,
Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
(infra)

The most important thing is to say there is no correlation between Islam and delinquency.

Jeanne Sautière,
director of integration and religious groups
for the French prison system, giving the official
position of overlooking the obvious
(infra)

IN FRANCE, PRISONS FILLED WITH MUSLIMS

SEQUEDIN, France April 29, 2008 (WaPo) - On a continent where immigrants and the children of immigrants are disproportionately represented in almost every prison system, the French figures are the most marked, according to researchers, criminologists and Muslim leaders.

"The high percentage of Muslims in prisons is a direct consequence of the failure of the integration of minorities in France," said Moussa Khedimellah, a sociologist who has spent several years conducting research on Muslims in the French penal system.

... As a matter of policy, the French government does not collect data on race, religion or ethnicity on its citizens in any capacity, making it difficult to obtain precise figures on the makeup of prison populations. However, demographers, sociologists and Muslim leaders have compiled generally accepted estimates showing Muslim inmate populations nationwide averaging between 60 and 70 percent.

French governments perpetuate this phony concept of a Republican France without social demography. They go on to argue that a Republic without social distinctions is without social discrimination. There is no evidence of discrimination -- no statistics, no numbers, no charted trends -- because by law such evidence cannot be collected. [Pause.] That is a neat French trick. No one but Republicans warehoused in the banlieues. No one but Republicans in French prisons. No anti-Semitism, just Republicans attacking Republicans.

The prison system has only 100 Muslim clerics for the country's 200 prisons, compared with about 480 Catholic, 250 Protestant and 50 Jewish chaplains, even though Muslim inmates vastly outnumber prisoners of all other religions. "It is true that we haven't attained full equality among religions in prisons yet," said national prison official Sautière. "It is a matter of time."

... Prison officials say it is too expensive to provide halal meals. "We'd like to buy fresh meat, but we can't," said [Aurélie Leclerq, 33, director of the Lille-Sequedin Detention Center], whose prison office is decorated with plush bears.

Muslim inmates said they sense other religious snubs. Christians are allowed packages containing gifts and special treats from their families at Christmas, but Muslims do not receive the same privilege for the Ramadan holy days. "We're careful not to call them Christmas packages because Muslims would ask for Ramadan packages," Leclerq said. "We call them end-of-the-year packages. We can't use a religious term or some people get tense."

That is what the French call nuance.

Prison officials rejected requests by The Washington Post to visit some of the system's older, more troubled prisons. [WaPo was only allowed a walk-through France's newest prison, "the sprawling, three-year-old Lille-Sequedin center".]

Other Pave posts on French prisons here and here and here.

PFFT (What is this?): Republican prison population turns to Mecca 4 | Rayonnement français 0