Forging a voice in ‘France’s high-rise hell’

Immigrant identity
But in the face of the perceived ineffectiveness of the Council, other groups are stepping forward.

While religion remains a powerful identity marker and social cohesive for French-born Muslims of North African and African descent, many groups are choosing to embrace a different identity, one more broadly defined by their “immigrant” experience.

For example, the secular Les Indigenes de la Republique, established last year, is beginning to force its way into the mainstream.

Les Indigenes draws a direct link between France’s colonial history — especially its treatment of the “natives” (“indigenes”) in those countries — and the effective segregation of immigrant populations within France today.

“Basically the treatment of the sons of immigrants, or the sons of those who have been colonized, is … the same (as) how our parents or grandparents have been treated,” said Cherif Bouaoud, 33, an activist with the group.

‘Immigration, integration and alienation’
Indeed, even the term “immigrant” is a misnomer. In France it typically includes French-born citizens of African or Middle Eastern heritage. But France’s concept of “laïcité,” an almost militant secularism, means it eschews any hyphenated labeling of its citizens as, for example, French-Algerians.

“The issues in France are enormously complex,” George Joffe, a fellow at Cambridge University’s Center of International Studies, cautioned. “What at first appears to be a Muslim issue, actually happens to be Algerian or Tunisian or Moroccan and so forth.”

“It has nothing to do with the issues of religion or radical Islam. … The real issues are immigration, integration and alienation,” he said.

Abdelaziz Chaambi, an activist with both Les Indigenes de la Republique and the left-leaning Collectif des Musulmans de France, would agree. The real problem is discrimination in employment, housing and society, he said.

David Friedman / MSNBC.com Abdelaziz Chaambi, an activist with Les Indigenes de la Republique and the Collectif des Musulmans de France.

"Today in France, we have no problem with our identity, French or Muslim," Chaambi, 48, said.

Marriage of convenience
But despite a growing population and a renewed activism in France, don’t expect a significant shift on the national level, said Olivier Roy, professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris and an expert on political Islam.

“I think … local authorities will have to take into account specific demands of the Muslims because the Muslims will play a role on the local level,” he said.

“They want a cemetery, they want halal meat, things like that,” Roy said. “So, on the local level, yes, the weight of the Muslims will play a role but not in a political shift between left and right or the emergence of a new party, at least not now, not for the foreseeable future.”

Roy, who has also worked as a consultant for the French government, noted some small shifts. For example, a group of young Muslims eager to join the political fray in his own hometown, invited one of the Green Party’s leading figures, Noël Mamère, to an event to announce they were joining his party.

Roy was taken aback initially because Mamère, the mayor of Bègles, is famous in France for being the only politician to have celebrated a gay marriage.

But these Muslim activists did not mind. They were ready to work with the Greens on other issues and would simply set aside the gay marriage issue for now, Roy said. It led him to conclude that this was true integration at work.

Greater Muslim political involvement “will benefit the Greens … because it is the only party that is welcoming to a new constituency, even if they disagree about gay marriage or things like that,” Roy said.

‘Fete de l’Umma’
That is not to discount entirely the role of religion.

The mostly Moroccan leadership of the UOIF remains active in focusing on specifically Islamic issues. It was one of the first groups to protest in favor of Muslim schoolgirls' right to wear headscarves in France's schools and, more recently, played a leading role in the opposition to French newspapers' publication of the Muhammad cartoons.

The French scholar Gilles Keppel has suggested that through actions such as these the UOIF has stayed at the forefront of attempts by Islamist groups to demonstrate that France is now part of the "dar al-Islam" ("house of Islam").

It is a testament to the organization’s influence that the UOIF was able to draw more than 100,000 people — many by the charter busload — to its recent gathering at Le Bourget. It is the largest annual Islamic event in Europe.

Toward a voice
Back in Clichy-sous-Bois, local activist Mihi says his goal merely is to put names on the voter registration lists.

“I don’t have any idea of the impact that we will have,” he said.

“I don’t know which way particular people are going to vote,” Mihi continued. “The only thing we try to say to the young people is, ‘Don’t listen to the polls, because the polls find what they want and they’re often wrong. Just go and vote how you want’.”

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