Arab immigrants in france........matter of suffering and integration
Uploaded by maishams on Dec 16, 2006
Arab immigrants in France……..Matter of Suffering and Integration
In 27th of October, 2005, riots caused by the Arab and Black minorities spread rapidly in France, country of freedom and equality. In one of Paris suburbs, where mostly Arabs live, two teenagers were killed during a police sweep. The wave of riots spread increasingly in the whole country causing great deal of destruction. French citizens saw their cars burned and their national property destroyed. All those sudden events led the French community to ask about the reasons behind all this frustration and violence in such a liberal country like France. Frankly, these riots were not a great surprise for the French authority because many human rights organizations warned France from the discrimination towards the minorities (Matlack). The reasons for Arab Muslims violence and frustration are due to discrimination, poor economic levels, governmental policies, and the Arabs' inability to integrate into the French society.
Discrimination is caused by negative images about Arabs and lack of teaching diversity in school curricula. Dr. Hayttham Manna' pointed out that racism in French society had increased significantly. According to him, the Advisory Committee on Human Rights in France reported that 70% of the French have racist appeals (Memri). This indicates that the French society practices discrimination towards the different minorities and this is due to different reasons. First, there are many negative images which the French have about the Arabs. The first reason which causes this negative image is the religious aspect. Tarek Ramadan assumes that it is wrong to think of religion as the reason behind the violence and frustration. According to him, the French think that religion is the main cause of violence and ignore the other socio-economic dimensions of the problem (Memri). They think that Arab Muslims are terrorists because of their religion. The French society generalizes the violence of some fundamentalists to the whole Arabs and Muslims because the French cannot understand that violence has no specific religion. Negative images are also due to clash of cultures. There are major differences in traditions between the Arabs and the French which create misunderstanding between them. Ali Saad Al-Moussa argues that Arabs carry their culture in their bags when they immigrate to western countries (Memri). Hence, the differences in traditions and ways of thinking make a gap between the minorities and the...