Episodios
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As UN experts are warning about genocide and crimes against humanity in Gaza and despite israel's long track record of bombing palestinian civilians, this episode will cover France's support to the ongoing massacre. Who is behind it? What are France's interests in this position? How about Europe, is this new?
After WWII, the mantra was "never again". France which deported its own Jews to the Nazi death camps and which was home to the collaborationist Vichy regime, could have been the leading country to perpetuate this mantra in the face of the atrocities in Gaza. Yet it chose not to. Why not? What are the power dynamics that have motivated Macron and his party to stand with Israel and its bombings against civilians. Worse still, the French government had even banned all pro Palestinian protests and to prosecute organizers.
At the European level, Ursula von Der Leyen went on to bypass the union's diplomatic corp and show total support to Benyanmin Netanyahu, again in the name of "Israel's right to self defense". However, rebellion is brewing within EU diplomacy as many have called her out for overstepping her job description. How long will this support last as the number of civilian deaths has reached 4000 and clearlyn Isreal has no strategy on what will come next.
This episode will attempt to answer these questions and to decipher the official position of France and that of the European commission.
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This episode is my personal appreciation of Hip Hop and how it played a fundamental role in my political upbringing. Though I traced back the lessons I learned from Public Enemy, KRS One among others, I could not resist the temptation of sharing with my audience a brief history of French Hip Hop in Paris, Marseille and the area I am from, the Southside Banlieue (94).
You will hear about IAM, NTM, Mafia K1Fry, Secteur A, Doc Gyneco, Arsenik, 113, Kery James, Ideal J... We will also cover the movie "La Haine" and what it meant for the Arab and Black.
I am grateful to all the artists that have influenced me throughout the years. Hip Hop forever.
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The recent raid against French journalist Ariane Lavrilleux for exposing the SIRLI operation has made headlines about the repression of a free press in France. The SIRLI operation is a long running collaboration between the French military and the Egyptian dictatorship. In the name of fighting terrorism, highly trained French military personnel was used to carry extra judicial killings on the Lybian border leading to the death of hundreds of civilians.
In this podcast we will see how this raid is not an exception. The journalists working for DISCLOSE that made these revelations actually had been interrogated by intelligence services at least five times since 2018. How dangerous is it to be a journalist in France and was Macron serious when he said "he will always be on the side of those who struggle to inform us, who fight for the truth?"
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On August 31st, the newly apointed Minister of Education Gabriel Attal started his mandate by launching a campaign against abayas, or long dresses, supposedly worn by radicalised Muslim students.
Where is this prohibition coming from? What are its political aims and what does it say about France, its war against French Muslims and the future of French society?
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Sabine Vorin, a cleaning agent, was found dead, alone, in the toilets of the Naguib Mahfouz municipal library in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, on September 17, 2018.
What her death revealed, was the terror and racism faced by Black and Arab workers at the City Hall of Paris and how the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and the Mayor of the 20th arrondissement Frederique Calandra (now in charge of helping victims http://www.justice.gouv.fr/delegation-interministerielle-daide-aux-victimes-12894/frederique-calandra-nouvelle-presidente-du-cn2r-33860.html), not only failed to address the issues when raised to them, but also decided to fund the legal harrassment of those who blew the whistle.
In France, only 3% of the victims of racism dare to press charges.
Quoted in this podcast:
https://www.cjl.ong/?s=sabine+vorin
To support my work as I have been charged for the second time in relation to our investigations on the death of Sabine Vorin, please do so here: www.yasserlouati.com
If you are a journalist who want to cover this story, please DM me on https://twitter.com/yasserlouati -
Reviewing the presidential campaign, the election, the debates, the state of the Left and what the 2022 elections say about France.
Read the full analysis on The New Arab: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/opinion/macrons-victory-paved-oppression
'The levels of respectability that the National Rally has garnered was all too visible during the presidential debate between Macron and Le Pen. Not once did the sitting president critique the political views that Marine Le Pen espouses. The words ‘far right’ ‘racism’ or ‘fascism’ were never uttered by him.''
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Guest: Jean Beaman, Author of "Citizen Outsider" and researcher on race and racism in France and the US.
Many have called out the blatant double standards on refugees by western powers. While refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia were violently rejected by countries like the US, France or the UK, those coming from the Ukraine were immediately welcomed and offered asykum, proper housing and means to integrate. But after calling this out, where do we take the conversation from here? How has whiteness been constructed to allow white skinned ukrainians in, but not white skinned Syrians? How will this sudden change in policy towards Ukrainian refugees affect hos countries that are already facing tremendous challenges in terms of structural racism and tension with marginalized minorities?
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Following our previous episode "Muslim Clerics and the Arab Revolutions", my guest Dr Usaama Al Azami, Lecturer in Contemporary Islamic Civilisation at the University of Oxford and author of "Islam and the Arab Revolutions" came back to carry the conversation towards the notions of "legitimate authority" and its limits, obedience and dissobedience, armed rebellion, the notion of social contract as conceptualised through Islamic lenses. We further debunked the prevalent modern day narrative promoted by school of thoughts that have been promoting, thanks to the backing of Arab regimes in Africa and the Middle east.
Applied at the local level, how does the discourse on obedience apply? How does the narrative on listening and obeying affect communities and keep them from thriving wherever they are? furthermore, what the direct responsibility of clerics, scholars and religious leaders generally speaking in not opposing state sponsored narratives on blind obedience and trust?
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As the Arab Revolutions were unfolding, various Muslim clerics took a public position to either support or condemn them, if not out right call for their repression in blood. Dr Usaama Al Azami, Lecturer in Contemporary Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford and author of "Islam and the Arab Revolutions" joined me to discuss the rationale followed by each camp but also how Islam was both the legitimizer of autocracy, democracy, the status-quo, revolution and counter revolution.
From Dr Yusuf Al Qaradawi to Ali Gomaa, Hamza Yusuf and Abdallah Bin Bayyah, we dwelve into the role played by religion during the uprisings even though, be it in Tunisia or Egypt, revolutionary leaders did not arise from religious institutions. The discussion was further extended to sepration of religion and state, secularism as a new religion (especially in the case of France) and whether Islam teaches strict obedience to whomever is in power and hence, is de facto the religion of power.
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About my guest:
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Guest: Khalil Dewan, head of investigations at Stoke White Lawyers (London)
After the bombing of a wedding celebration in the town of Bounti, Mali that left 19 civilians dead, a damning UN report contradicted claims by the French government that armed extremists were on site. To this, France has consistently refuted the accusation and has stuck to its narrative of targeting terrorists in the central Malian town and has so far ignored calls by Malians to hold its military personnel to account.
Six months later, on July 3rd, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he will be ending "Operation Barkhane" and withdraw troops from the region. But what he failed to announce, was the increase in the number of French drones that will be taking off from the Niamy, Niger airbase and continue drone operations with the sole purpose of continuing what troops on the ground had been doing since 2013.
“France has a systematic problem in admitting and identifying civilian casualties. The mounting evidence on the Bounti wedding airstrikes still has not triggered any investigations on part of France or the Mali government – none have approached the victims to date”Khalil Dewan
Armed drones are becoming an integral part of France's military operations abroad but nothing has transpired in terms of strategy, chain of command, usage policies and when/how a strike is ordered. The Bounti, Mali massacre and the impunity that has followed has prompted the CJL to cover the topic through Le Breakdown and Yasser Louati who received Khalil Dewan head of investigations at the London based Stoke White lawfirm, and author of the report: France's Shadow War in Mali: Airstrikes at the Bounti Wedding.
In this episode, we covered the horrific bombing of civilians in Mali but also how the 20 year long US drone war and its thousands of civilian casualties has not deterred France from launching its own, and, to make things worse, without any transparency.
Le Breakdown is brought to you the CJL, the Committee for Justice & Liberties. We are an independent human rights and civil liberties organization. -
Shedding light on how nazi ideology has inspired the BJP in power and how the collapse of Indian democracy did not happen overnight. Md Asif Khan , an Anti Islamophobia Activist came on the show to describe the ongoing persecution of religious minorities in India especially Muslims, their lynchings, the violence of "mob cows", the poisonous conspiracy theories like "Muslim coronajihad" and the responsibility of Indian media.
This podcast is brought to you by CJL, a human rights and civil liberties organization. We are independant and receive no state subsidies to remain so. If you feel this podcast deserves your support, please make a donation from 1€ without commitment.
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“This anti separatism bill reminds me of the Muslim ban under Trump” Channel Andrews, Professor of Law at the University of Pariss Assas
Channel Andrews is an American attorney based in Paris, France, where she teaches law at Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). Prior to moving to France, she served as Assistant Counsel in the Governor’s Office of General Counsel in Pennsylvania. Her legal expertise includes Administrative Law, Comparative International Law, and Constitutional Law.
In this conversation, Channel Andrews compared ongoing mobilisations in both France and the US against shrinking space and how governments, especially in France seem unable to hear demands for equality and justice.
This prodcast is a product of the Committee for Justice & Liberties, we are and remain totally independent thanks to our donors. How about being one of them from 1€ without commitment! www.cjl.ong/en/donation
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"...there is a deeper, more damaging force at play: our assimilation into the capitalist structure via globalisation..."* *Mariem Massmoudi, civil society activist working for democratic governance & religious freedom in the Middle East and North Africa. She writes on critical political & social theory, comparative democracy studies, and Islamic & comparative religious studies. Quoted: "Ramadan: The Month of Anti-Imperialism" https://traversingtradition.com/2018/06/04/ramadan-month-of-anti-imperialism/
Watch this conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOzo-Rf3vrs
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From 9/11 to the Paris Attacks in 2015, from the Patriot Act to the state of emergency in France and in light Macron's racist policies, a transatlantic look at Muslims in the West.
This podcast is independent thanks to our donors, please be one of them and help us sustain this project, from 1€ without commitment: www.cjl.ong/en/donationJonathan Brown is the Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He received his BA in History from Georgetown University in 2000 and his doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago in 2006. Dr. Brown has studied and conducted research in countries such as Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, South Africa, India, Indonesia and Iran. His book publications include The Canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim: The Formation and Function of the Sunni Hadith Canon (Brill, 2007); Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Oneworld, 2009; expanded edition 2017); Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2011), which was selected for the National Endowment for the Humanities' Bridging Cultures Muslim Journeys Bookshelf; Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenges and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy (Oneworld, 2014), which was named one of the top books on religion in 2014 by the Independent; and Slavery and Islam (Oneworld, 2019). He has published articles in the fields of Hadith, Islamic law, Salafism, Sufism, Arabic lexical theory and Pre-Islamic poetry and is the editor in chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Law. Dr. Brown’s current research interests include Islamic legal reform and a translation of Sahih al-Bukhari. He is also the Director of Research at the Yaqeen Institute.
Sources quoted:
ESTABLISHING OFFICIAL ISLAM? THE LAW AND STRATEGY OF COUNTER- RADICALIZATION by Samuel J. Rascoff http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2012/02/Rascoff-64-Stan-L-Rev-125-1.pdf
Banning of the hijab: understanding france's ongoing war: https://anchor.fm/lebreakdown/episodes/Banning-of-the-hijab-understanding-frances-ongoing-war-eu6suq -
As the French Senate has passed a series of amendments against the Muslim headscarf, foreign flags in weddings and even threats againts organizations on political grounds, where is this legislative brutality coming from and where is France going?
This podcast is independent thanks to our donors, please be one of them and help us sustain this project, from 1€ without commitment: www.cjl.ong/en/donation
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Malia Bouattia is the former head of the National Union of Students (NUS) in the UK. She was the first female Black British and Muslim leader of the historic student union in a landmark election that took place in 2016. She brought forward the issue or race, class and gender and was a leading voice for better access to education especially for minorities. Malia Bouattia also stood against the PREVENT provision that criinalised Muslim communities in the UK in the name of fighting terrorism.
Malia Bouattia is aso Editor at Redpepper Magazine and is herself a contributor to several news outlets, including The Guardian, Middle East Eye, The New Arab and the HuffPost. She is currently a host on the British Muslim TV panel show Women Like Us.
In this conversation, Malia gave her analysis of shrinking spaces in the West as several prominent academics are being silenced by the government as is the case for David Miller, if not outright brutalised at gunpoint like Dr Farid Hafez from the University of Salzburg.
The conversation further expanded to highlight the ongoing bullying of civil society by the Macron government, the calls to censor criticism of israel by zionist organisations in the West acting on behalf of local israeli embassies, student organizing, the role of Muslims in fighting human rights violations and finally, why time is for “civil disobedience”.
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What does it say about a country when the current Minister of Interior Gerald Darmanin singles out the far right leader Marine Le Pen for being "too soft on Islam and in need of vitamines"? When the far left leader Jean Luc Mélenchon has a forty year track record of supporting anti-Muslim controversies to the point of supporting Marine Le Pen when she refuses to cover her head in a Mosque in Beirut for: "No one tells French people what to wear"? From the rush to Africa to the birth of the fifth Republic in 1958 following a pro Charles de Gaulle coup d'État, from the French Revolution in 1789 to the fall of the Vichy Regime in 1945, has France really distance herself from white supremacy?
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Let’s stop pretending the attempted coup is “unamerican” or a shocking surprise. Guest: Tory Russell, Movement For Blak Lives Organizer
After Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill to contest Joe Biden’s election and left 5 people dead and an outraged political and media elites, questions remain on what this event reveals and what the aftermath would look like for America.
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As it turned out the rioters were far from being unprepared, information suggest that there has been support at the highest of the state to allow the assault to take place. why didn’t the DC Police better prepare for it? How come the governor of Maryland Larry Hogan offered to send the National Guard but could not get the green light to do so? Why was the Secretary of Defense out of reach as people were trying to call him? What does this event mean for the american grassroots struggling against white supremacy and a hostile Democratic Party.
To answer these questions, Ferguson Organizer and Mouvement For Black Lives Co-founder Tory Russell joined the show to give his insight and analysis and to offer leads on what can be accomplished in the aftermath of the attempted coup.
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How the historic institution is a symptom of the ills of French society and the French government’s relation with Muslims. Of all the media, it is to Charlie Hebdo that the rector of the Grand Mosque (of Algiers) of Paris Chems Eddine Hafiz went to call out and blame his friends from the French Council of the Muslim Faith for the failure of his "charter of values" to be signed by French imams. Following his speech on "islamist separatism", Macron demanded that "Muslim leaders" come up with a charter to make sure imams abide by French values.
The proposed charter of Imams & National Council of Imams has been a clear assault on: #Laïcité for the government wants to meddle in Muslims' religious and clerical affairs. Freedom of conscience: what kind of Islam they can practice Freedom of expression: what they can talk about.
Nevertheless, CFCM member federations agreed to draft one...but the Rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris went behind their back and offered to the Minister of Interior (the same guy who linked halal food with terrorism) a draft that goes above and beyond. The draft proposed by the Rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris would prohibit Imams from speaking of "state racism", "state islamophobia", foreign conflicts (i.e Palestine), even to get involved in community organizing. The Min. of Interior was DELIGHTED by this abdication. But after the Ambassador of Algeria declared: "the Grand Mosque of Paris belongs to Algeria" https://algerie360.com/20201220-la-grande-mosquee-de-paris-est-dabord-algerienne-selon-lambassadeur-dalgerie-en-france/, he had to backtrack. Of course, when he went to whine at Charlie Hebdo he blamed "antisemitic islamists" but not the Algerian chain around his neck.
What is quite shocking is the silence of both Emmanuel Macron and his Minister of Interior Gerald Darmanin. That a foreign ambassador makes such declaration should have sparked a diplomatic row. Yet nothig happened. Why such embarassing silence?
SUBSCRIBE AND LISTEN TO LE BREAKDOWN on:
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Guest: Dr Hatem Bazian,
Hatem Bazian is a co-founder and Professor of Islamic Law and Theology at Zaytuna College, the 1st Accredited Muslim Liberal Arts College in the United States. In addition, Prof. Bazian is a lecturer in the Departments of Near Eastern and Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Bazian between 2002-2007, also served as an adjunct professor of law at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He teaches courses on Islamic Law and Society, Islam in America: Communities and Institutions, De-Constructing Islamophobia and Othering of Islam, Religious Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies. In addition to Berkeley, Prof. Bazian served as a visiting Professor in Religious Studies at Saint Mary’s College of California 2001-2007 and adviser to the Religion, Politics and Globalization Center at UC Berkeley. - Mostrar más
