After Paris attacks, Muslim residents in Clichy-sous-Bois face heightened scrutiny
CBC Radio | Posted: November 17, 2015 1:07 PM | Last Updated: November 17, 2015
"In France, it is very, very difficult to be Muslim because there are so many people that have bad information about Islam." - Mohammed who lives in Clichy-sous-Bois, suburb in Paris
Mohammed is 25. He dresses all in black and rides a motorcycle.
He is a a first-generation French citizen living in the Paris suburb, Clichy-sous-Bois.
He's also a Muslim.
Clichy-sous-Bois is largely an immigrant suburb of Paris where the 2005 protests began.
Clichy-sous-Bois often gets blamed for radicalization, a suburb that many say breeds dangerous jihadis.
Except Mohammed points out that's not him and he has no sympathy for that view. He shared his thoughts with Anna Maria.
Mustafa who is French, and also lives in Clichy-sous-Bois, agrees. He spoke through a translator with Anna Maria to elaborate.
Police in both France and Belgium pushed into several poor, predominantly immigrant neighbourhoods in the last few days in raids, looking for suspects they believe aided in Fridays terror attacks. There have been arrests on both sides of the border.
The calls for greater security and more robust military action have been echoing across Europe and through NATO countries.
But Michael Privot points out that even with the military action and the security of the last decade, we have seen an increasing number of young people embrace jihadist ideologies.
Michael Privot is the Director of ENAR - the European Network Against Racism. His work focuses on radicalization within Muslim communities. He was in Brussels.
This segment was produced by The Current's Lara O'Brien in Paris.