Nadine Osman
A number of councils in France have refused to accept any of the 24,000 Muslim Syrian refugees the President had agreed to accept over the next two years, with one town claiming they “cut off boss’s heads”.
Two mayors declared they only wanted to accept Christian refugees to keep out terrorists.
Referring to the June incident when Yassin Salhi decapitated his boss, a memo, unanimously approved by Charvieu-Chavagneux Council on September 9 said the town only wanted to accept Christian refugees because they “wouldn’t proceed to cut off the heads of their bosses.”
The Council’s text went even further declaring that “Christian refugees will not put others in danger, they would not attack trains armed with Kalashnikovs and would not gun down journalists in an editorial meeting,” referring to the recent foiled attack by a gunman on a train, and to the massacre at the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo in January.
The text also evoked a “war of civilisation” and the “arrival en masse of jihadists on French territory”.
Others have also expressed reluctance to accept refugees – a process which remains voluntary, so far at least.
National Front Leader, Marine Le Pen, vowed that none of the 11 towns run by her party would take in any refugees.
She claimed they were unequipped, but the suspicion is that anti-Islam sentiment may also lie behind the stance of a party seen by critics as being deeply Islamophobic and racist.
Even ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy has been stoking fears talking of the “risk of the disintegration of French society” due to the influx of refugees and migrants.
Secretary-General of the Union of French MosquesMohammed Mraizika denounced the “dangerous” stance of the mayors.
“These mayors are irresponsible and their words are dangerous especially in the context of this crisis, which is very difficult,” he said
“Whether refugees are Muslim or from another religion, we have a duty to stand together and face up to this human tragedy,” he said.
Mraiziki said Charvieu-Chavagneux Council was pouring “oil on the fire. They don’t think about the consequences of their words.”
“Each time there is a statement like this, we notice a steep rise in Islamophobia and racism in France. It’s dangerous,” he said.
(Photo: Creative Commons)