With all eyes focused on the riots that grappled the French capital over the past weekend over police face-veil check, the Muslim woman whose incident sparked the events has accused police of abusing her and her family because of their faith.

“I am referring to you because I suffered from a police abuse,” the woman, identified by the name Hajar, told Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF).

“They wanted to control me because I wear the full-veil. As usual, I complied to this identity checking.”

The angry incidents erupted last Friday when the Hajar, her mother and husband encountered identity checking by national police in Paris southwest suburb of Trappes.

During this identity check, Hajar said her husband was abused and put into custody because he dared to protest the behavior of the police agents.

“I was about to lift my veil when I saw police agents violently pushing my mother,” she said.

“One of the agents got suddenly very angry against my husband just because he said (concerning my mum): “Don’t touch her! Why do you touch her knowing she has nothing to do with this control?” she recalled.

“The policeman then replied to my husband, in a very aggressive and scornful way:“What are you gonna do?”

Later, her husband was put in handcuffs taking them both to the police station.

“Once in the police car, they yelled at us like we were animals. They threatened my husband: ‘What are you gonna do now, uh! Bastard!’ with their clenched fists, molesting him in the car,” she said.

Trying to solve the issue, some of the Muslim elders in the neighborhood went to the police station, including the local imam, to appease the situation.

The police expelled from the station, triggering confrontation with angry Muslim youth who surrounded the station, pelting them with rocks.

Another building was torched in several hours of street violence that led to six arrests.

Defense

Ignoring angry confrontations, France’s Interior Minister Manuel Valls defended on Monday, July 22, his country’s ban on wearing full-face veils in public.

“Police did their job perfectly,” Valls told RTL radio, Reuters reported.

“The law banning full-face veils is a law in the interests of women and against those values having nothing to do with our traditions and values. It must be enforced everywhere,” he said.

French Muslims, estimated at nearly six million, have long complained of rising discrimination and hostile sentiments in the European country.

France banned the wearing of face-veil, or niqab, in public places in 2011.

Offenders are fined 150 euros ($189) or required to take part in a citizenship class.

People who force women to wear a face-veil risk up to a year in prison and a fine of $41,000.

It came after the European country banned the wearing of hijab, an obligatory code of dress in Islam, in 2004.

Amnesty International has criticized France and a number of European countries as Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland for discriminating against their Muslim minorities.

The London-based group said several European countries have made policy decisions in recent years that discriminate against their Muslim citizens, citing bans on face-veils and other religious symbols in schools as being among the most damaging measures.

http://www.onislam.net/english/news/europe/463674-french-muslims-decry-islamophobic-police.html

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