A French ban on
praying in the street came into force on Friday, driving thousands of
Muslim worshippers in northern Paris into a makeshift prayer site in a
disused fire brigade barracks, angering a small but vocal minority.
The street-prayer ban has
highlighted the problem of a 5-million-strong Muslim
community assimilating into French way of life and traditions, and follows a long-running
controversy, fanned by Marine Le Pen, over Muslims
forced to lay their prayer mats on the streets in big cities.
Interior
Minister Claude Gueant directed Muslims in Paris to temporary spaces
made available pending the building of a huge new prayer space and
warned that force would be used if necessary as police end their
tolerance of street prayers.
Seven months before a presidential election, the ban has struck some in France as an attempt to rally far-right sympathizers to President Nicolas Sarkozy's center-right camp.
At
the barracks, Cheik Mohammed Salah Hamza oversaw prayers for Muslims
who had migrated from around the city. Worshippers streamed in,
spreading their woven prayer mats over the floor of the hangar-like
building and out into the courtyard."It's
the beginning of a solution," Hamza told Reuters before the start of
the service. "The faithful are very pleased to be here.
The space, which
holds 2,000, is full."Many
worshippers were also upbeat. "This will be better than rue Mryha,"
said
one man, referring to a Paris street renowned for hosting street
prayers. "Apparently, it shocked people."
Le Pen has described the growing phenomenon of praying on the streets and sidewalks as an "invasion." "It's
Marine Le Pen who started all this,"
a woman who gave her name as Assya
said on her way into the former barracks on the outskirts of Paris.
"Now the government has banned street prayers and sent us here so they
can gather votes from the National Front party -- that's
all."
"NO SYSTEM CAN CONTROL US".
In
France, where a strict separation of church and state has been in force
for a century, public displays of religious activity are frowned upon.Yet
efforts by Sarkozy's conservative government to restrict religious
displays, such as a ban on full-face veils, have drawn criticism as
empty measures that unfairly single out Muslims.
France
counts the largest Muslim population of any European country. But only a
portion -- about 10 percent, or the same proportion as among Catholics
-- are practicing, according to Muslim associations.
As
a rule, radical Muslim voices in France are rare, but Friday's prayers
in northern Paris drew a small but angry protest from a radical minority
more often seen in online posts.
An
hour before the first prayer young men with beards, green headbands and
banners gathered on rue Myrha to discourage worshippers from moving to
the new site
."No system in the
universe can control us aside from Allah," shouted one young man. "There
is more dignity in praying in the grass than in their false mosque,"
said another.
As the prayers began,
dozens of young men belonging to a group called Forsane Alizza
disrupted the service with shouts of "Allahu akbar" -- "God is greatest"
-- and jostled with security.
In the long run, a new Islamic centre is supposed solve the problem.
That is scheduled to be finished by 2013, although the timeline is far
from certain.
About 1,800 more mosques are needed for France's estimated 6 million
Muslims. The shortages have led to similar problems in Marseille and
Nice.
