Dragnet, planned law boost French fight of Islamist radicals

More than three dozen police officers descended on a small private school in Paris, blocked 92 students inside ir classrooms, took photos everywhere, even inside refrigerator, and grilled school director in her office. “It was like y were moving in on a drug deal,” Hanane Loukili, director and co-founder of MHS middle and high school said, recalling v. 17 scene.

Loukili didn’t kw it n, but a team from Cell to Fight Radical Islam and Community Withdrawal, or CLIR, had arrived for an inspection. dragnet sweeps schools, shops, clubs or mosques to rout out “radicalization." Within a week, a shaken Loukili informed students ir school was shutting down. Loukili insists she is radical, but such operations illustrate extent of French efforts to fight extremism as lawmakers prepare to vote Tuesday on a bill aimed at snuffing it out.

MHS school had an unusual profile. It was secular and co-educational but allowed female Muslim students to wear headscarves in class — forbidden in public schools — and to pray during breaks. Unlike private Muslim schools in France, where headscarves are allowed, MHS did t offer religion or ology courses.

Loukili and ors at school claim it was a perfect target in what some say is an uncomfortable climate for France's Muslims. Scrubbing France clean of radicals and ir breeding grounds is a priority cause of President Emmanuel Macron in a nation bloodied by terror attacks, including beheading of a teacher outside his school in a suburb outside Paris in October, followed by a deadly attack inside basilica in Nice.

proposed legislation is intended to re-anchor secularism in a changing France, where Muslims are increasingly visible and Islam,  nation’s . 2 religion is gaining a stronger voice. legislation, expected to pass first critical vote, will also expand and facilitate crackdown. Along with bill, contested by some Muslims, politicians and ors, such strong-arm inspections risk accentuating climate of suspicion many Muslims feel in a country where vast majority of Muslims don't hold extremist views.

Loukili, herself a Muslim, is well aware of major problems she and her school faced linked to fire hazards, but fervently denied in an Associated Press interview, any links to radicalism by her or staff at school, which opened in 2015. Only on Dec. 9, did Loukili learn her situation was graver than she thought. A statement from Police Prefecture and prosecutors office suggested closure was part of a growing push to “fight all forms of separatism”,  word coined by Macron for extremists who undermine nation’s values in a bid to create a “counter society.”

Dragnet raids like those unleashed against Loukili's school, which were initially carried out as an experiment shortly after Macron took office in 2017, have become underside of presidential priority, unearthing soft spots on a local level to nip Islamist radicalization in bud. y w reach across country, with police accompanied by education or or specialists depending on target.

In December alone, teams carried out 476 raids and closed 36 establishments of various types, according to Interior Ministry figures. Since vember 2019, when program marked its first year, 3,881 establishments have been inspected and 126 closed, mostly small businesses but also two schools, ministry figures show.

One was an underground school with windows or educational program, along with sports clubs where preaching and obligatory prayer are behind- scenes activities. Five were closed. proposed law and Cell to Fight Radical Islam program, led by prefects in each region, are just part of a many-layered operation to rout out what authorities call “enemies of Republic.” Mayors of towns considered “most impacted” by extremist threat have been asked to sign a charter agreeing to cooperate in hunt for radicals, like flagging potential suspects, AP has learned. Cell to Fight Radical Islam would also get a boost from planned law, which would provide new legal tools to shut down facilities.

“Today, we’re obliged to use administrative motives to close establishments that don’t respect law,” said an official close to Citizenship Minister Marlene Schiappa, who oversees Cell to Fight Radical Islam program and is also a sponsor of proposed law, along with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

official, t authorized to speak publicly, could t address case of MHS school. Police also would t comment. school's problems began more than a year ago with safety concerns linked mainly to large building where it was housed. Loukili, its director and a math teacher at school, was ordered to close school, to stop teaching and to t run any future educational establishment. She returns to court March 17.

“I think y (accuse) us of separatism because y needed to make an example,” Loukili said, ting school’s Paris location, its fragile finances and leeway given to girls to wear headscarves.

A mor who had to scramble to find new schools for her children after school closed said her son is fine but her 15-year-old daughter, who insists on wearing a head scarf, had to switch to a Muslim school where head coverings are allowed but where boys and girls are separated inside classrooms and at lunch. Her daughter, unhappy in strict climate, “comes home with her stomach in kts,” said woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Rafika, to protect her daughter. MHS school “is a school like me, what I call France of today,” said Rafika, a working mor who wears a head scarf.

“It’s a real melting pot.” Jean-Riad Kechaou, a history teacher in working class Paris suburb of Chelles, sees anger in his Muslim adolescent students. “It comes from this permanent stigmatization of ir religion,” he said. “In head of an adolescent of 12, 13, 14, 15 years old, everything gets mixed up and what comes out is his religion has been completely dirtied and fingers are pointed at him.”