Target was icon of integration
AN eerie silence descended over Saint-Denis yesterday. It was as if this bleak working-class suburb on the northern outskirts of Paris – home to large numbers of Muslims – was in mourning.
The streets, usually bustling, were all but empty. Only a few bothered to venture out of their homes. Few shops were open.
It was here among the North African communities that a suicide bomber killed himself, along with an innocent woman. That his target was the Stade de France – where France won the 1998 World Cup thanks largely to the brilliance of Zinedine Zidane, the son of a poor Algerian immigrant – is particularly poignant. It was as if the terrorists wanted to deliberately smash what has for so long been a symbol of racial integration in France’s collective consciousness, by tainting it for ever with the blood of innocents.
Local taxi driver Mohand Larhouali said he feared the fallout from the attacks. He was so frightened that he told his wife and two teenage daughters to stay home. ‘This terrible series of slaughter has changed the situation for all our people,’ he said. ‘It will only make us and our religion more hated. What those guys did is not at all Islamic. No religion would condone the killing of innocent people. It was barbaric. They are dogs. No, worse. I think I prefer animals to them.’
Algerian by birth, but having lived in France for the past 20 years, Mr Larhouali, describes himself a liberal follower of the faith. ‘I went to the mosque to pray for the souls of those who died. I am a French citizen and I stand with them,’ he said.
Fathia Badaoui, a widow, of Algerian/Moroccan origin, looked distressed as she made her way from a bakery back to her home above an empty pizza restaurant. ‘I have four children,’ she says. ‘I cannot imagine what the parents of those young people who were victims must be going through. This is the saddest day. I have been in France for more than 30 years, but I’ve never felt so ashamed of what has been done in the name of my religion.’
Of the few other people willing to talk to me only one seemed to understand the wider politics behind the attack.
Abdel Kader, a university graduate and businessman, 30, said he was not surprised. ‘France joined with America to say it was open to war in Syria and so it was always on the cards for a serious backlash,’ he said.
‘The Americans have left us to take the rap for their policies in the Middle East. They want to destroy President Assad of Syria, but that is more dangerous than leaving things as they stand. I say that we must engage in more dialogue and less killing.’