France struggles to fight radical Islam in its jails

By Alexandria Sage

VILLEPINTE, France (Reuters) - In France, the path to radical Islam often begins with a minor offence that throws a young man into an overcrowded, violent jail and produces a hardened convert ready for jihad.

With the country on heightened security alert since January when French troops began fighting al Qaeda-linked Islamists in Mali, authorities are increasingly worried about home-grown militants emerging from France's own jails.

But despite government efforts to tackle the problem, conditions behind bars are still turning young Muslims into easy prey for jihadist recruiters, according to guards, prison directors, ex-inmates, chaplains and crime experts interviewed over the last few months by Reuters.

"I have parents who come to me and say: 'My son went in a dealer and came out a fundamentalist'," said Hassen Chalghoumi, imam of the mosque in Drancy, a gritty suburb north of Paris.

Malian Islamists have warned France it is a target for attacks, most recently in a video that came to light on Tuesday. This has added to concern in a country which, according to the Europol police agency, arrested 91 people in 2012 on suspicion of what it categorized as religiously-inspired terrorism.

These numbers are by far the highest for any European Union country, although tiny when compared with France's estimated 5 to 6 million Muslims, the overwhelming majority of whom are peaceful, law-abiding citizens.

France, which has Europe's biggest Muslim population, is not alone. International studies show that prison radicalization is a problem in countries ranging from Britain and the United States to Afghanistan. However, France stands out because over half its inmates are estimated to be Muslim, many from communities blighted by poverty and unemployment.

The two ethnic Chechen brothers suspected of last month's Boston bombings, while not former convicts, further underline the threat posed by "lone wolf" militants - young men from immigrant communities acting alone or in small groups who are lured into violent Islam.

One such was Mohamed Merah, who killed four Jews and three soldiers last year in and around the southern city of Toulouse. This marked the worst attack on French soil since 1995 bombings on the France's underground train network by Algeria's Armed Islamic Group (GIA) that killed eight and wounded scores.

Merah, 23, spent time in jail for violent theft. Another suspected French Islamist was radicalized behind bars before being shot by police in October.

In March an Islamist suspect was arrested on accusations of plotting an imminent bomb attack on French soil. He had spent five months in jail last year for drugs and theft offences.

"We're faced with an external enemy in Mali, but also an enemy from within who is the product of radicalization," said Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who acknowledged that Merah's killing spree had revealed a serious lapse in intelligence.

"They start as minor delinquents, move into selling drugs, sometimes do prison time and convert to radical Islam and hate towards the West," he told local media in February.

"A GOOD SCHOOL"

Noisy, dirty and smelling of garbage, Villepinte is the most crowded jail in the Paris region, called the "jungle" by guards. France's prisons watchdog, after a 2009 visit, described its inmates as "young, undisciplined and totally uncontrollable".

Brawls occur weekly and staff, many of them trainees, live in fear of attack. In January an optometrist was knifed in the eye with a pair of scissors. Absenteeism is sky-high among guards, who say they are overwhelmed by the daily challenge of keeping order.

"Islamic radicalization is a real curse in most of our prisons," Villepinte guard Blaise Gangbazo told Reuters. "But in tough jails like ours it comes about even more easily. It's a good school."

France's prison population has grown by a third in the past decade, partly due to policies under conservative governments of handing down heavy sentences on repeat petty offenders.

No official data exist but sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar says about half the 67,674 prison population is Muslim, rising to 70 percent in some urban areas. This disproportionate ratio of young, disadvantaged Muslims is added to a toxic mix of overcrowding, overtaxed guards and a lack of mainstream Muslim chaplains to discourage radicalization.

Vulnerable young men typically arrive in jail, isolated from family and friends at a time of personal crisis, and become susceptible to recruitment by radicals. One such case was Karim Mokhtari, who at 18 was jailed for over six years for a botched robbery in which a man was shot.

While in jail in the northern city of Amiens, he met a soft-spoken older inmate who consoled him, invited him to pray and encouraged him to read the Koran in Arabic. "When you arrive in prison you feel completely abandoned. You get there and you need to find some strength," said Mokhtari.

"You're seeking hope and when someone holds out a hand, you take it," he said. However, in a subsequent encounter the new friend urged him to "kill the infidels wherever you find them".

"The idea was to go get myself trained and become a violent Jihadist," said Mokhtari, adding that the recruiters work on inmates' hostility to the prison system and to a country where they often have been unable to find work.

Nearly two decades ago Mokhtari resisted such pressure. Today, aged 35, he works with youth to keep them out of prison and has co-written a book, "Redemption", about his experiences.

Prison workers say the vast majority of Muslim inmates are not radicalized. Yet leaked U.S. diplomatic cables from 2005 cite a warning by French officials that the prisons and poor suburban neighborhoods were top recruitment areas for radical Islamists, and refer to a report by French intelligence services describing radicalized prisoners as "time bombs".

Chaotic jails bear the brunt of overcrowding due to constant arrivals of uncharged suspects, and in cells or the yard, petty hoodlums quickly cross paths with serious criminals.

"It's the little guys who bother us the most, because on the inside they meet the big guys. Then the consequences are bad," said Gangbazo, the Villepinte guard. "At our level, the guards are powerless against that."

UNDER THE RADAR

Justice Minister Christiane Taubira warned foreign journalists in March against overestimating the threat of prison radicalization, but added it was "certainly worrying".

Asked how authorities were tackling the problem, she cited measures to transfer inmates found to be proselytizing to other jails, aiming to disrupt any recruitment efforts to radicalism.

This policy helps to control those prisoners already identified as radical Islamists, but not all recruiters have been convicted under France's anti-terrorism laws. The task is tougher with inmates serving terms for unrelated offences who have turned to radical Islam unnoticed by the authorities.

Untrained staff tend to confuse devout Muslims with potential radicals, said sociologist Khosrokhavar, author of a 2004 study commissioned by the Justice Ministry that was the first to highlight the level of Muslims in French jails.

"The whole attitude to radicalization is outdated," he said. "Those who become radicals are precisely those who do not show it. It happens without any kind of external signs like growing one's beard."

Another hurdle is that France's internal prison intelligence unit, known as EMS-3, has no judicial power, complicating moves to share information with the DCRI domestic security service.

"We send up a lot of pieces of information when we spot them except there's not enough information coming down to us from the DCRI," said Jimmy Delliste, director of the Saint-Etienne jail just outside Lyon. "That's a real problem."

To make matters worse, the prisons' EMS-3 is controlled by the justice ministry while the interior ministry directs the DCRI, both with distinct cultures, hierarchies and goals.

REAL OR FAKE RADICAL?

One way to thwart radical Islam in prison is through prison chaplains able to counter such messages with moderate teachings, security experts agree. But here too, France is falling short.

Despite a prison population dominated by Muslims, France has about 160 Muslim chaplains versus 700 Christian ones. Some estimate more than 80 percent of Muslim inmates never see a chaplain, increasing the risk of falling prey to radicals.

That contrasts with Britain, where about 200 Muslim chaplains address a Muslim prison population estimated at only a third of France's.

Abdelkadar Eddouk, who was chaplain at the Fleury-Merogis jail outside Paris for nine years before he resigned recently, estimated at least 480 Muslim chaplains are needed, together with a clearer set of guidelines to help them in their task.

Government plans, by contrast, are to add just 30 this year and next - a figure Eddouk said was grossly insufficient to allow the chaplains time to get to know the real radicals and those parroting violent ideas as a form of protest.

"Either the guy is a real radical, or he's a fake radical," Eddouk said. "How am I supposed to know? After talking with him for 15 minutes, I can't."

(Editing by Mark John and David Stamp)

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Muslims worry about broader France headscarf ban

LE BOURGET, France (AP) — Because of her choice to wear a headscarf, Samia Kaddour, a Muslim, has all but abandoned trying to land a government job in France. Soon, some private sector jobs could be off limits, too.

French President Francois Hollande says he wants a new law that could extend restrictions on the wearing of prominent religious symbols in state jobs into the private sector. His new tack comes after a top French court ruled in March that a day care operator that gets some state funding unfairly fired a woman in a headscarf, sparking a political backlash.

As Christians celebrated Easter on Sunday, Kaddour attended the four-day Annual Meeting of Muslims of France in Le Bourget, north of Paris. The convention, which last year drew some 160,000 faithful and was expected to grow this year, is billed as the largest annual gathering of its kind in Europe. It is in its 30th year and ended Monday.

French law bars state employees from wearing prominent religious symbols such as Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps or large Christian crosses in public schools, welfare offices or other government facilities. Two years ago, France banned Muslim veils that cover faces, such as the niqab, which has a slit for the eyes, or the mesh-screen burqa, from being worn anywhere in public.

Meeting leaders say France has made progress in accepting Muslims and noted that, unlike 30 years ago, women wearing headscarves today rarely draw suspicion, scowls or curiosity. Still, many Muslims — and even some Roman Catholics and Jews — fear France's insistence on secular values first enshrined in the French Revolution more than two centuries ago is unfairly crimping their ability to express their religious beliefs freely.

They also worry that Hollande's Socialist government, like a conservative one before it, wants to score political points.

Most mainstream politicians insist Islam is not being targeted. But a backlash erupted after the Court of Cassation ruled in March that Baby Loup, a private-sector day care operator that gets some state funding, unfairly fired a woman who wore a headscarf to work. The far-right railed at the decision, and even Interior Minister Manuel Valls expressed regret over it.

Wading into the debate in a prime-time TV interview on Thursday, Hollande suggested new limits are needed on Muslim headscarves, saying that "when there is contact with children, in what we call public service of early childhood ... there should be a certain similarity to what exists in (public) school."

"I think the law should get involved," he added.

Many Muslims fear an encroaching Islamophobia, while proponents of such measures insist they counter extremism and act as a rampart to protect France's identity against inequality. Polls show that most French people support at least some restrictions on religious symbols.

France, with an estimated 5 million-6 million Muslims whose families mostly have origins in former French colonies in north Africa, is at the forefront of addressing the challenges that many European countries are facing about how to integrate their sizeable ethnic and religious minorities on a continent where white Christians have dominated the political landscape for centuries.

Bristling against stereotypes in many corners of the West that Muslims are closet radicals or even terrorists, leaders of the convention in Le Bourget preached peace and justice. And after prayers and praise of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, convention leaders led a song in Arabic in a vast meeting hall with thousands in the audience — and some up on the dais waved French flags.

In another convention hall, vendors offered items such as headscarves, sweet pastries or T-shirts emblazoned with the saying 'Don't Panic, I'm Muslim,' while mothers pushing strollers and others wandered through the crowd. Nearby, men kneeled in rhythmic unison for afternoon prayers. Several other stalls took up political issues such as support for Palestinians or war-weary Syrians.

In an interview, Kaddour said many Muslims regret that their faith is in the political crosscurrents again in France.

"Islam has become a political instrument," said the 26-year-old, who is a community activist from the English Channel port city of Le Havre and one of 10 children of Algerian-born parents who moved to France for plentiful jobs during its economic boom times decades ago. "Islam is always brandished whenever there is internal political discord."

"I'm not discouraged enough yet to want to leave France — many others feel that way too: We are French and we have our place to claim and our future to establish in France," she said. "I'm not a foreigner. I'm French. I want to live in France, I love this country. Even if it has trouble liking us, we are going to do what's necessary to live serenely in France."

Kaddour says she plans to go back to school to get a higher degree, but has all but given up hopes for a state job. And in France, that matters: the European Union says more than half of France's gross domestic product comes from government spending — potentially curbing the work options for headscarf-wearing Muslims such as Kaddour if the ban is broadened.

"A state job, unfortunately..." she said, her voice trailing off. "When I go into job interviews, I wear my headscarf. No results." She admits that she doesn't always know why — it could just be her skill set isn't sufficient — but suspects her religion plays a role, too.

Kaddour says her future career seems increasingly limited to independent, private practice work. She currently works for a small community group devoted to improving understanding of Islam, called Le Havre de Savoir, or The Haven of Knowledge, playing on the city's name.

At a time of double-digit unemployment rates in France, such restrictions to job access hit headscarf-wearing women especially hard: Muslim men in France don't usually wear visible religious garb.

Ahmed Jaballah, the head of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France, a major Muslim group that helped organize the conference, said the "rather morose ambiance" over France's sluggish economic growth recently hasn't helped Muslims' aspirations, suggesting that a search for scapegoats is politically appealing. He said he's concerned about the government's plans.

"Unfortunately, Muslims have the impression today that secularism is being shaped based on Muslim practices, and that's worrisome," he said in an interview. "Everybody always talks about secularism, how it's not just about Muslims. But in fact, Muslims are targeted. Nobody is fooled."

"Muslims wonder: Can we trust secularism?" he said. "Remember the French slogan: 'Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.' Today, we want this fraternity to be real."

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Britain, France, push EU to drop Syria arms ban

By Mohammed Abbas and John Irish

LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Britain and France raised the pressure on other European Union members on Tuesday to lift a ban on supplying arms to Syria, where anti-government rebels are outgunned by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

Britain warned that it could break with the embargo altogether, which requires unanimous agreement by the EU's 27 members to take effect, while France hinted it would push to get the bloc to agree to amend the ban to allow the supply of arms.

The arms embargo is part of a package of EU sanctions on Syria that currently roll over every three months, with the last extension unanimously agreed by the EU last month and which came into effect on March 1.

Without unanimous agreement to either renew or amend the ban in three months' time, the embargo lapses.

"I hope that we can persuade our European partners, if and when a further change becomes necessary, they will agree with us," Cameron told a parliamentary committee when asked whether Britain could "veto" the embargo.

"But if we can't, then it's not out of the question we might have to do things in our own way. It's possible," he added.

Britain has not explicitly said it wants to arm the rebels, but repeatedly has said it does not rule out the option, depending on events on the ground.

In France, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said "a new balance of power" has to be created in Syria.

"We understand the idea of not adding weapons to weapons, but that position doesn't work in the face of reality it and that (reality) is that the opposition is bombarded by others who are getting weapons while they are not. It's a difficult position to keep," he said.

France and Britain accuse Assad of gambling on a military victory against his opponents, and hope the threat of giving the rebels arms will force him into talks and a transition of power.

After weeks of wrangling last month, Britain pushed for and won EU agreement to relax the embargo to allow non-lethal but quasi-military aid such as body armor and armored vehicles to be supplied to the rebels.

However, Britain and France say more must be done, while Germany has warned that giving the rebels with arms could lead to a proliferation of weapons in the volatile region and spark a proxy war.

Fabius said France would take steps on the embargo issue in the coming days without specifying what would be done.

According a senior French official who spoke on condition of anonymity, anti-aircraft missiles are among those weapons being considered for supply to rebel fighters in Syria.

BOLSTER THE MODERATES

Critics of the plan are alarmed at the growing number of Islamists in the rebel ranks, some affiliated to al Qaeda, and are also concerned about the ability of the Syrian National Coalition opposition group to control fighters on the ground.

Addressing concerns about weapons falling into the wrong hands, a Foreign Office official said Britain was confident of the moderate credentials of those it planned to help.

"We're talking to the opposition constantly about a whole range of support and we know who the people we want to work with are ... It's important to bolster the moderate elements of the opposition. We know who these are," the official told Reuters.

Britain, which has called the crisis in Syria a "catastrophe", has warned that the longer it continues, the more likely it is to attract radical Islamists.

The two-year-old conflict started out as pro-democracy protests, but has since descended into an increasingly sectarian war between rebels mainly from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority and forces loyal to Assad, who follows the Alawite faith derived from Shi'ite Islam.

Some 70,000 people have been killed and more than one million refugees have fled the violence.

(Additional reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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France, allies want special force for Mali U.N. mission

By John Irish and Michelle Nichols

PARIS/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - France and its African allies want a heavily armed force able to counter any resurgent Islamist threat in Mali as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission, diplomats said.

The United Nations is considering setting up a 10,000-strong force in the former French colony before presidential and legislative elections in July, a deadline a European diplomat described on Tuesday as "a race against time".

U.N. deputy peacekeeping chief Edmond Mulet is in the Malian capital Bamako this week to assess options for a peacekeeping mission once a French-led military intervention that began two months ago is completed.

A heavily armed rapid-reaction force, similar to the unit proposed for a U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, would be a departure from its typically more passive peacekeeper operations.

In practical terms, U.N. diplomats say, troops in the rapid-response force would have more freedom to open fire without being required to wait until they are attacked first, a limitation that is standard for U.N. peacekeepers deployed around the world.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due to deliver a report to the Security Council with peacekeeping recommendations for Mali by the end of the month, and diplomats hope a vote could take place by mid-April.

"The discussion so far in the council shows that a consensus is there (for a peacekeeping mission)," said a senior U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Diplomats said the vote hinged on the security situation.

France launched a ground and air operation in January to break Islamist rebels' hold on the northern two-thirds of Mali, saying the militants posed a risk to the security of West Africa and Europe.

French and Chadian troops are engaged in heavy fighting in northeast Mali, where Islamist militants have taken refuge, and hope to secure the region by the end of the month.

Paris then wants to start winding down its 4,000 troops with a view to handing over to the African force, AFISMA, that would later fall under the U.N. peacekeeping mandate.

AFISMA comprises about 6,000 troops, mainly from West Africa, including more than 2,000 Chadians. Other than Chad's contingent, most African elements remain in the south of Mali away from the fighting.

"We'd like to see the non-Chadians go north to Gao and Timbuktu so that the focus can be on the final phase in the extreme north," the European diplomat said.

"After that, we're talking about a peacekeeping force of 10,000 soldiers."

RAPID INTERVENTION FORCE

However, there are fears that militants could launch a guerrilla-style insurgency marked by suicide attacks and hit-and-run raids on towns, leaving the U.N. force exposed.

A rapid-reaction force to counter this threat could retain battle-hardened Chadian troops, but also include elements from new forces such as Burundi, which has played a key role in fighting Islamists in Somalia.

France's role in that framework has yet to be defined, but diplomats say talks center on French elements being based either in Mali or elsewhere in the region and intervening if needed.

"It would be under French control, but approved by the United Nations," said the European diplomat.

Financing is also an issue. About $450 million in donations pledged last month in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to fund African and Malian troop operations have failed to materialize, leaving a burden on AFISMA countries, diplomats said.

Once the Security Council authorizes the deployment of a peacekeeping mission - which would take at least two months - the U.N. would equip, finance and support most of the troops and give them human rights training, the U.N. official said.

(Writing by John Irish; Editing by Erica Billingham)

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Arrested Islamists suspected of planning attack in France

PARIS (Reuters) - Three suspected Islamist militants arrested in southern France appeared to be planning an attack in the days ahead, the Paris prosecutor said on Monday, the anniversary of an al Qaeda-inspired shooting that rocked France.

Police found weapons and explosives at the home of one of the suspects in the town of Marignane, near Marseille, and intercepted communications between the men suggested they were close to going into action, prosecutor Francois Molins said.

The three men, who were taken in for questioning last week with a fourth man who was later released, were to be placed under formal investigation later on Monday.

"The investigation showed we were faced with a veritable laboratory for making improvised explosive devices and, even if we had no evidence of a precise plan, the messages exchanged by the participants suggested the timetable could be accelerated," Molins told reporters.

The timing of the arrests was poignant, coming exactly a year after 23-year-old gunman Mohamed Merah began a rampage that killed three Jewish children, a rabbi and three soldiers in the southern city of Toulouse. He was subsequently tracked down and killed in a shootout with police.

Speaking as Defence Minister Le Drian led a memorial ceremony in Toulouse for Merah's first victim and posthumously awarded him the prestigious "Legion d'Honneur" medal, Molins said the arrested men, in their 20s, wanted to emulate Merah.

"It was clear they were training themselves in making explosives based on a jihadist radicalization, a glorification of Mohamed Merah, and an affirmed desire to go into action."

France, which centralizes its terror investigations in Paris, is on high alert for any home-grown militant activity since its military intervention against Islamist fighters in Mali in January prompted threats of retaliatory action.

(Reporting by Catherine Bremer and Patrick Vignal; editing by Mark Heinrich)

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France, Germany at odds over lifting Syrian arms embargo

By Adrian Croft and Justyna Pawlak

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - France urged the European Union to look again at lifting an arms embargo on Syria to help rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad, putting it at odds with Germany which said such a step could spread conflict in the region.

Highlighting the different approaches of two of the European Union's heavyweights, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Monday said lifting the arms embargo would help level the playing field in the two-year-old conflict in which 70,000 people have died.

But his German counterpart, Guido Westerwelle, said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels that such a move could lead to a proliferation of weapons in the region and spark a proxy war.

France reopened the sensitive issue only days after EU governments had agreed a hard-fought compromise on a limited easing of the arms embargo to help Assad's opponents.

"The question of lifting the arms embargo arises increasingly because there is a clear imbalance between Bashar al-Assad who is supplied by powerful weapons from Iran and Russia and the (opposition) National Coalition which doesn't have these weapons," Fabius said.

"I think this question of the embargo, which was already raised several weeks ago here, will have to be posed again very quickly because we cannot accept such an imbalance which ends in the massacre of an entire population," he told reporters.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are widely believed to be providing weapons to the rebels. The United States says it does not wish to send arms for fear they may find their way to Islamist hardliners who might then use them against Western targets.

Within the EU, Britain, supported by France, has been pushing for easing the arms embargo to help Syrian rebels. But many other EU states have reservations.

UK INCREASES AID

After weeks of wrangling, the EU amended the arms embargo last month to permit the supply of armored vehicles, non-lethal military equipment and technical aid to the Syrian opposition, provided they were intended to protect civilians.

Britain moved quickly to expand the scope of the aid it gives the Syrian opposition, pledging to supply armored vehicles and chemical weapons testing kits.

Westerwelle and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton put the emphasis on helping rebuild rebel-held areas of Syria.

"I am convinced that it is necessary we do more for the reconstruction in the liberated zones," Westerwelle said.

"So the economic and financial embargo, which at the moment hits the whole country, should be handled in a more flexible way and maybe changed so that we can deliver goods for infrastructure, medical assistance, electricity, water," he said.

Ashton said the EU was looking at ways to work with the opposition to restore basic services, such as medical supplies, water purification, power generation and some administrative services.

EU ministers discussed the Syria crisis with U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who warned that Syria could end up worse than violence-torn Somalia unless a political settlement is found.

"The real choice in Syria is between a peaceful, political, consensual agreement, and a situation which resembles and is greater than the situation which Somalia knew in the last few years," he told reporters.

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker, Robert-Jan Bartunek and Dominic Evans; Editing by Erica Billingham)

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France says al Qaeda chief Abou Zeid "probably" killed

PARIS (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's senior field commander in the Sahara, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, has probably been killed in Mali, the head of France's joint chiefs of staff said on Monday.

Edouard Guillaud's remarks are the first indication from the French government that Abou Zeid died in fighting in the rugged north of Mali.

Asked on Europe 1 radio whether he had been killed, Guillaud said: "It is probable but only probable. We don't have any certainty for the moment (but) it would be good news."

Chad's army, which is fighting alongside French forces in northern Mali, said last week that it killed Abou Zeid and another al Qaeda commander in the area, Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Pravin Char)

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