On January 23, a documentary on Islam in the town of Roubaix, in northern France, was broadcast on the program “Zone Interdite” (“Restricted Zone”). That documentary has had a major impact in the country, prompting much discussion of how Muslims are violating with impunity the laws of the Republic. And of course the program has infuriated Muslims precisely because it has revealed such violations. Robert Spencer wrote about this briefly here, and a full report on the program can be found here: “French journalist, 34, is given police guard over her report on radical Islam in town where shops sell FACELESS DOLLS, restaurant has cubicles for women to eat and Muslim who spoke out was threatened with beheading,” by Lizzie May and Chris Pleasance, MailOnline, January 31, 2022:
A French journalist has been given police protection after fronting a documentary about the impact of radical Islam on a poor town in the north of the country.
Ophélie Meunier, 34, has received death threats in the wake of documentary Zone Interdite – or ‘Restricted Zone – that aired in France on January 23, looking at the influence of hardline Islamic views in the town of Roubaix, on the Belgian border.
Meunier found a restaurant where women are given cubicles to eat away from men, and a toy shop selling faceless dolls to comply with strict interpretations of Islam that forbid depicting facial features.
Meunier did her job well. She uncovered a great many things in Roubaix, including:
A restaurant that violates the laws of the Republic by segregating customers by sex, with women must eat segregated from men, in cubicles that have been covered on all sides with curtains, so that the women can neither see out or be seen.
A toy store where all the stuffed animals and dolls are faceless, in observance of the Muslim ban on images of living creatures.
Several mosques that the authorities had closed down for “extremism” five years before, but which had reopened after a few weeks and have been operating openly ever since.
She also spoke to Amine Elbahi, 26, a Muslim lawyer from Roubaix who helped expose an educational institution that received £53,000 [$72,000 USD) of public money to teach poor children, but was found to be spreading Islamic teachings instead.
The mayor of Roubaix apparently wanted to win the support of Muslims; he agreed to provide money for this “educational institution” that was only supposed to provide schooling for poor children, but the mayor failed to check on whether the school was fulfilling its declared mission. This publicly-funded institution turned out to be offering not secular schooling but Islamic teachings, in violation of the principle of laicité that is enshrined in French law.
Elbahi [the Muslim lawyer in Roubaix who appears in the film) spoke out against the influence of radical Islam in the film, and has now been branded an ‘infidel’ and threatened with beheading. He is also under police guard.
News that the pair have been threatened has caused outcry in France, where many feel the secularism on which the modern-day republic was founded is under threat from religious ideologies brought in by overseas migrants.
Meunier, the intrepid journalist who conducted the investigation into Roubaix and its Muslim population, has received death threats after producing this documentary exposing the influence of radical Islam in a northern French town. She is now under police guard, which she may need for many years to come. One can well imagine how disruptive those ever-present guards will be to both her working and her private life. It’s a price she was willing to pay.
As for Mr. Elbahi, the Muslim lawyer who in the documentary spoke about the influence of radical Islam in Roubaix, he, too, has received many death threats and now requires a police guard. Can he conceivably continue to live in Roubaix, to go to his office, to appear In court, to raise a family, while constantly worrying about what might befall him at any moment, despite that police guard? He will no doubt have to move away from Roubaix, possibly even changing his name, to avoid Muslim fanatics determined to kill him or members of his family.
Eric Zemmour, a far-right [sic] commentator and Macron rival who has twice been convicted of hate crimes[sic] for statements about Islam, was quick to align himself with Meunier after it emerged she had been threatened.
‘Ophélie Meunier is in mortal danger,’ he tweeted on Saturday, as the documentary began garnering widespread attention.
‘This is what happens when you show the French the Islamization of our country. Millions of patriots thank her for her courage.’
Valerie Pecresse, another right-wing challenger to Macron, tweeted: ‘Full support for Ophélie Meunier, threatened and placed under protection after the courageous investigation on Islamism….
Mr Elbahi tipped off the criminal investigation into Roubaix-based ‘association’ featured in the program by M6, Ambitions et Initiatives pour la Réussite (Ambitions and Initiatives for Success).
His lawyer, Mr Jean Tamalet, says that Mr Elbahi received threats on social media, particularly on Twitter, but also texts, WhatsApp messages, and voice recordings.
In the threatening messages, he is described as ‘Kafir’, which translates to ‘nonbeliever’ or ‘infidel’ in Arabic.
‘Kafir’ has been a word used by supporters of ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other Islamic extremist groups, to refer to ‘Muslim and non-Muslim adversaries’ through ‘various propaganda materials’, according to the Counter Extremism Project.
Lawyer Jean Tamalet told AFP: ‘He is told that he is going to be beheaded and slaughtered. We won’t let a single threat pass.
‘We will file a complaint against anyone threatening this gentleman.’
Three members of the charity association, which received the council payout of €64,640, were accused by prosecutors as being used for offering Islamic education, are to appear in court alongside the mayor of Roubaix on Wednesday.
French legislation states that public bodies are prohibited from contributing to religious charities, a law which is designed to uphold the secular values and views of the state.
Mayor Guillaume Delbar, 50, is facing charges of breaking this law ‘by negligence’ when he gave the go-ahead for the association to receive funding, but he says he may have been tricked.
The three charity members are accused of breach of trust – which they deny. They say the association never offered religious lessons.
Hmm. Whom shall we believe? The three Muslim members of the charitable association who are accused of breach of trust in misleading the municipality as to the real purpose of the association that received public funds, and who deny it ever offered religious lessons? Or should we believe, rather, the Muslim lawyer in Roubaix, Mr. Elbahi, who bravely testified — he surely knew what a torrent of murderous hate would be directed at him — that the association did despite its denials offer Islamic religious instruction and, for his pains, has received a torrent of death threats?
Muriel Cuardrado, a lawyer for one of the members of the charity, said that the association had previously helped children from disadvantaged backgrounds to get the baccalauréat, the French national academic qualification pupils can get at the end of secondary school.
Let’s look at Muriel Cuardrado’s statement carefully. It could well be that “previously” the association had helped some students to get the baccalauréat, while at the same time it provided religious instruction, a practice that, because public money was involved, violated French law.
‘When I read in the press that this is a proselytising association, it gives me stomach cramps,’ she said.
Apparently Ms. Cuardrado has not seen the documentary, in which Mr. Elbahi, the intrepid Muslim lawyer in Roubaix, testifies as to what the “association” is really up to – taking funds from the municipality, offered by a credulous mayor, in order to support religious education.
Mayor Delbar said he decided to get behind the association because it ‘developed a formidable program of help for the educational success of Roubaix’s children’.
He continued: ‘I might have been tricked. I might have made a mistake. But the debate must not be manipulated by those who see separatists everywhere.’
There’s no doubt that Mayor Delbar was persuaded to provide financial support – public money – for a school offering religious education. But perhaps he was not “tricked” as he suggests; perhaps he failed to investigate or monitor the recipient because he was determined to supply the funds in order to curry favor with the Muslim voters in Roubaix.
Roubaix has slowly metamorphosed into a vast No-Go zone, the first such city-wide zone in France.
One more thing: ever since the documentary was shown, a series of high officials have publicly resigned from the Le Pen campaign and instead, joined the campaign of Eric Zemmour. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc? Yes, and here it is no fallacy.
Doomer says
All in all,this will help Zemmour,he is the only one who speaks about this
Hugh Fitzgerald says
It is already helping him. More officials from Le Pen’s camp are. defecting to Zemmour. So are members of Pecresse’s Republicans. They are coming one or two at a time rather than all at once. That way, each new defection becomes a news story. For the French public, it’s a stillicide of defectors.
Doomer says
Wow,I had no idea,the Islamists have forgot Machiavelli’s advice regarding maintaining power:
“A prince must appear to be good.”
gravenimage says
+1
mortimer says
Telling the truth about Islamic backwardness is ‘HARAM’ because it brings ‘shame’ on Islam in the minds of Muslims. The bringer of true news (but unfavorable news) about Islam is doing something Sharia law calls ‘IMPERMISSIBLE’ and so, he must be executed, since he is a ‘KAFIR HARBI’ (a non-Muslim ‘at war’ with Islam).
Telling the truth about Islam means that you are ‘at war’ with Islam. Islam is a topsy-turvy BACKWARD WORLD in which being truthful and accurate is a crime to be punished by death.
gravenimage says
Mortimer, I don’t think that imposing Shari’ah brings shame on Muslims. Instead, exposes like this educate the Infidels on the threat of Islam. Pious Muslims don’t want Infidels to know this until it is too late.
I certainly agree that Islam has topsy-turvy morality, though.
Jacques says
True! But.. hateful ideologies & belief systems have always existed! Yet! history is a witness that alert people & civilizations have always fought against them & those that haven’t paid the price!
Today, what’s most concerning is that such belief systems are left UN-challenged by almost all governments & the international community such as the G20!
Keith O says
What I find to be more than a little scary, is that people still have this attitude that, “if it’s not on TV it’s not real, just a rumour”.
The evidence has been in front of the French people for a decade or more and it takes a DOCO on TV for them to see and understand what has been going on in front of their faces?
Sadly, this same phenomenon is happening across the world and it will be our kids and grandkids who will have to fight them. This is a war that only one side understands is a war.
James Lincoln says
Keith O says,
“What I find to be more than a little scary, is that people still have this attitude that, “if it’s not on TV it’s not real, just a rumour”.
The lame stream media uses this to the advantage of the current Democrat party.
No talk about about the fraudulent 2020 US Presidential Election (especially the Dominion machines), dangerous side effects (especially when not appropriately targeted) from the Covid vaccines, etc.
Jim says
There is probably a different France which is separate from Islamic France and less aware of it. I spoke to a French person not long ago, and she had a positive view of France, whereby she never mentioned Islam. So perhaps the Islamic issue is not omnipresent, at least not yet. One can only hope that something will be done to slow or stop Islamic immigration to France, Germany, England and everywhere in the Judeo-Christian world.
gravenimage says
There is a *lot* of denial about Islam.
Rufolino says
Islam is only “not an issue”if you are ignorant, or when you close your eyes to it.
David M says
French Muslims: ” Islam is not a violent religion, and we will kill anyone who claims it is! “.
gravenimage says
Documentary on Islam in a French City Leads to Death Threats
……………………….
Only in Islam would a documentary lead to death threats.
rp says
Every time any money given to Muslims has some alternative meaning. They use such tactics. Just look at local UK councils, Any Halal restaurants open first thing they will will do is give 10% to council workers. Wonder why. Yet, in UK 90% people eat halal food via food outlets??Money generated by Halal is then used to promote Islam and help Muslims only. In a way getting help from Non Muslims helping Muslims , i.e. tax???
rp says
10% Discount to council
OLD GUY says
Islam the BIG LIE walking around as a religion. It is nothing more than a dictatorship style of leading a population thru intimidation and violence. Islam’s leaderships is comparable to the leaders of criminal cartels.
Larry Partch says
I think if the vote were held today, Marine Le Pen would TROUNCE Macaroni. I hope she wins in the next election, if she runs.
Jacques says
Religions are just belief systems and have no right to threaten, kill or convert others through force or fraud! One fails to understand why religious scriptures known for inspiring genocides and unprecedented violence are protected!! Yet! the political & media support for violent belief systems continue!