FRANCE. What does MIVILUDES do against Islamist sectarian deviances in France?

By Willy Fautré, Human Rights Without Frontiers

HRWF Int. (12.04.2008) – Email: [email protected] – Website: http://www.hrwf.net – The objectives of MIVILUDES (Inter-Ministerial Mission of Vigilance and Fight against Sectarian Deviances) which replaced the discredited MILS (Inter-Ministerial Mission of Fight against Sects) are to observe and analyze the phenomenon of cult-like movements whose activities are prejudicial to human rights and fundamental freedoms or represent a threat to public order or violate laws and regulations.

Despite the renaming of the MILS and the reorientation of the objectives of the state agency, MIVILUDES after a peaceful mandate under Jean-Louis Langlais is again instrumentalizing the issue to continue targeting a number of small faith or belief communities while totally ignoring the real dangers posed by foreign and French Islamists to national security, public order, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

It is difficult to understand why the MIVILUDES rightly blacklists the Japanese religious group Aum Shinrikyo which in 1995 carried out a sarin gas terrorist attempt in Tokyo’s subway while turning a deaf ear to terrorist and criminal activities of Islamist groups. The big absentees of the report “Sects and Minors: Stolen Childhood” (Les sectes et les mineurs: Enfance volée) are indeed the young Muslims living in France. It emerges from all the reports and documents of MILS and MIVILUDES that sectarian deviances in Islam are a non-issue, that Muslim boys and girls are not victims of any sectarian deviances in any Muslim movement and do not need any protection… The same non-action is also the policy of UNADFI, CCMM and other similar groups that gravitate around MIVILUDES.

Islamist terrorism, an issue for Europol

Europol (*) has just published its last annual report on the Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT) which describes the state of affairs regarding terrorism in the EU.

“Terrorism is not an ideology or a movement, but a tactic or a method for attaining political goals,” says the report. This view is also reflected in the EU Council Framework Decision of 13 June 2002 on combating terrorism (2002/475/JHA). Consequently, all member states had to align their national legislation with this Framework Decision by 31 December 2002. At the end of November 2007, the EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator reported to the European Council that, apart from Slovakia, all member states had fully completed the implementation.

Europol’s report distinguishes six types of terrorism according to their (main) source of motivation: Islamist terrorism, ethno-nationalist and separatist terrorist groups, left-wing terrorist groups, right-wing terrorist groups, animal rights and environmentalist terrorist groups (both categorized as single issue terrorism). Islamist terrorism is described as “motivated either in whole or in part by an abusive interpretation of Islam; the use of violence is regarded by its practitioners as a divine duty or sacramental act.”

Who could then contest that Islamism is a sectarian deviance of Islam and that this issue should be highly prioritized by MIVILUDES?

In 2007, nine EU member states reported a total of 583 failed, foiled or successfully executed attacks (24% more than in 2006): 517 were claimed or attributed to separatist terrorist groups in France and in Spain. Most of them were arson attacks aimed at causing material damage.

With regard to Islamist terrorism, two failed and two attempted attacks were reported for 2007: 0 in France, 1 in Denmark, 1 in Germany and 2 in UK.

Separatist groups were responsible for 532 attacks: 15 in Germany, 253 in France and 264 in Spain.

Left-wing groups were responsible for 21 attacks in the EU in 2007: 1 in Austria, 2 in Greece, 4 in Germany, 6 in Italy and 8 in Spain.

Right-wing terrorism: 1 case in Portugal.

Arrests of suspects, convictions and penalties

In 2007, 1044 individuals were arrested for terrorism-related offences (48% more than in 2006).

The reasons for the arrests were: membership of a terrorist organization; planning, preparing or executing an attack; financing, facilitation and recruitment for terrorist activities, propaganda for terrorism. The majority of all suspects were arrested for membership of a terrorist group and 22% for attack-related offences.

France, Spain and UK reported the largest number of arrests per member state. France went from 188 in 2006 to 315 in 2007 and Spain from 28 to 196.

However, concerning Islamist terrorism, the number of arrested individuals decreased from 257 in 2006 to 201 in 2007. France had the biggest share: 91. It was followed by Spain (48) and Italy (21).

45% of the suspects were arrested for membership of a terrorist organization and another 13% for attack-related offences.

The majority of those arrested in these three countries came from North African countries, such as Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. France, however, reported a high number of arrests of French nationals. An increase in the number of home-grown terrorists was also noted in Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium and Germany. All suspects arrested in relation to the publication and spreading of propaganda were younger than 31. An increasing number of young people in EU member states, including France, were found to be willing to participate in jihad outside the EU: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and now Somalia.

No sufficient reason for MIVILUDES to be vigilant, present and active among Muslim youth in France?

In 2007, 418 individuals were tried on terrorism charges in the EU member states, in a total of 143 proceedings. Most of them were charged in relation to separatist terrorism (54%) while 38% were related to Islamist terrorism.

In cases of Islamist terrorism, the court proceedings resulted in 61 verdicts in Spain, 44 in Italy, 33 in UK and 31 in France. On the total number of 55 verdicts for terrorism charges (Islamist and separatist together), there were only 3 acquittals.

Recruitment of young people

“Terrorist propaganda aims at providing a coherent interpretation of the world which justifies terrorist activities as acts of war or self-defence; it is an important tool for attracting and recruiting young people,” says Europol in its report.

Propaganda messages are recorded on video tapes and audio cassettes. Multimedia propaganda is now also accompanied by subtitles in Western European languages. Supporters of Islamist terrorism also produce material in several languages (Arabic, English, French, German) post it on the Internet.

The recent investigation in the UK which led to the conviction of three men for using the Internet to incite murder shows how the Internet can facilitate the jihadists’ activities. It also revealed that a large international network of people had jointly provided support to jihadist movements without ever having met in person.

The use of Internet and other electronic media have been identified as factors contributing to the increasing number of Islamist terrorists. The priority target of this propaganda is young Muslims in Europe.

The European Commission is aware of the danger. In November 2007 it presented to the European Council a proposal to amend the 2002 Council Framework Decision with a view to criminalizing the use of the Internet to provide terrorist training.

Conclusions

How long will MIVILUDES continue to ignore what should be the priority issue of its agenda in the implementation of its mandate? Who else than MIVILUDES should be mandated to protect Muslim minors in France against the abuse of their state of weakness, against the ideological manipulation of their immature minds, against the stealing of their childhood, their youth and sometimes of their lives, against their recruitment in violent, criminal and terrorist activities endangering public order and national security?

Footnote

(*) Europol, the European Police Office, was created by the member states of the European Union as the central hub for the exchange and analysis of law enforcement information. Europol publishes two annual public awareness reports: the EU Organised Crime Threat Assessment (OCTA) and the Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT).

See http://www.europol.europa.eu/index.asp?page=publications&language=