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Sarkozy's leftist By Adar Primor Tags: Nicolas Sarkozy, Fadela Amara  PARIS - She promised "not to hold her tongue." And she's keeping that promise. It's her trademark. Her uninhibited language spiced the contemporary French of the suburbs. If necessary, she won't hesitate to toss in a mild curse. She doesn't care what anyone else thinks, she says what she thinks and thinks what she says. Introducing: Fadela Amara, 43, the Minister for Urban Affairs who is feminist and single, an avowed secularist but also a proud Muslim. Militant in her soul and anti-Islamist in her blood. Connected to the ideological left but serving in a right-wing government. France is her country, but the Paris suburbs, where she grew up, define her identity. When President Nicolas Sarkozy, "the energizer of French and international politics," decided to appoint a minister with authority for the suburbs, he chose someone after his own heart. She is just as energetic as he, quick of speech and thought, extremely direct, utterly averse to political correctness and far removed from the stiff and wooden sort of language heard from her colleagues in the government. In public opinion surveys she ranks among the most popular politicians. A team of experts convened by the weekly Le Point and asked to judge the performance of government ministers put her in fourth place, along with the popular foreign minister Bernard Kouchner. The team praised her for her "vision," her "desire to promote reforms" and her "communication skills." Her most prominent trait, according to the weekly, is "gutsiness." When she is displeased with the government's policy, she doesn't hesitate to say so. As happened, for example, when an initiative was floated to perform DNA tests on immigrants who sought to reunite with their families in France. "Disgusting" was how she described the idea, which she saw as a "cynical maneuver" to prevent immigration. Her comments caused an uproar in the government. There were calls for her resignation. "Madame needs to remember where she is," said one member of the government. "Freedom of speech does not negate the obligation of courtesy," said another - Nadine Morano, now the minister for family affairs. Fadela - as everyone calls her - shot right back. She called Morano "La Castafiore" - referring to the screechy and overbearing opera singer from the Tintin comic books. She made it clear that she was not going to toe the establishment line in order to curry favor. Advertisement "I'm a free woman. Never forget that," she declared. "The day it becomes intolerable for me, I'll just get up and leave." Another time, she said: "Let it be clear - I was never asked to and have no intention of sweetening or whitewashing my opinions. If I have to bite, I'll bite." Feminist fighter Fadela, a petite woman with almond-shaped eyes and a wicked smile, was born 43 years ago in the Clermont-Ferrand suburb in central France to a large family of hardscrabble immigrants originally from Kabylia in Algeria. She has four sisters and six brothers. Her father was a construction worker who worked in the markets on the weekends. Her mother is a housewife. When Fadela was 14, her 5-year-old brother Malik was run over and killed by a drunk driver. For her, the accident was a formative event. The rude way police at the scene treated the family ("the Arabs," as one of them called them) deeply shocked her. This was the incident that led the young Fadela into public activism. She never finished high school, but she joined human rights organizations and plunged into the fight against racism, anti-Semitism "and all forms of discrimination." At age 16, when the Clermont-Ferrand municipality decided to raze the neighborhood where her family lived, she launched a new protest campaign for which she became the spokesperson. And her tenacious effort was a success. In 1983, she took part in the March for Equality, the opening shot in the fight by second generation immigrants against discrimination. In the years that followed, she would investigate the social rifts in the suburbs, the alienation, the increase in Islamic activity and the parallel decline in the status of women. In 2002, she assembled at the Sorbonne over 300 women of different backgrounds, from all over France, to testify about the violence they experience in the suburbs on a daily basis. This women's parliament launched a petition that garnered 20,000 signatures. The petition was sent to all the presidential candidates in the 2002 election. About a year later, after a young woman by the name of Sohanne was burned to death by her jealous boyfriend, Fadela declared all-out war on the "barbarians of the suburbs." She organized a nationwide campaign provocatively called Ni Putes Ni Soumises ("Neither Whores Nor Submissive"). The march, which began at Vitry-sur-Seine, in the rubbish room of the building where Sohanne was killed - lasted five weeks and stopped in 23 cities before reaching Paris, where 50,000 demonstrators were gathered. Out of this march, the movement of the same name, Ni Putes Ni Soumises, was born. Fadela Amara, its founder and president, became a familiar figure in France. In 2004, then prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin appointed her to his advisory committee on human rights, and in June 2007, Sarkozy made her a part of his government. The window of her spacious office, located behind the Ecole Militaire, affords a stunning view of the Eiffel Tower. The office is decorated with an enormous, art-deco style mural - a map of the world during the colonial period. Her parents, who immigrated to France in the 1960s, still do not have French citizenship. Talking with Fadela, it's clear that her own integration, loyalty and identification with France and its values is very strong. It is also possible to hear the voice of the Republican consensus coming from her: She came out in favor of the law prohibiting Muslim women from wearing headscarves in public schools, because "immigrants must be given a strong message of respect for women" and put an end to their subjugation and the fundamentalists' manipulation of the silent majority of immigrants. She is not a fan of affirmative action, which she feels only deepens the rifts among members of different ethnic groups and artificially improves the situation of a few. Fadela prefers integration "a la francaise" and investment in impoverished areas that will improve the quality of life for all residents. She refuses to see France as a racist or anti-Semitic country, and also rejects the claim that it is home to a phenomenon of Islamophobia - "a term that's nothing but a 'rhetorical invention' by a radical and unrepresentative Muslim minority" - the same minority that is "brainwashing our children under the guise of education." However, she certainly isn't about to let the country that took in her parents and with which she identifies off the hook. Nor the government that she joined: The chief goal Amara set for herself upon entering politics is to "return the suburbs to the bosom of the Republic." To make the presence of immigrants and their children in France a banal matter. To make these p eople an integral part of the French experience. No small task in a reality in which unemployment among young people in the suburbs is as high as 42 percent, by her account, in which the level of education is inadequate, inequality between men and women is worsening and fundamentalism in a community that is discriminated against socially and professionally is on the rise. In France of 2008, if your name is Mohammed, if you're young and a resident of one of the suburbs that have lately become synonymous with riots and violence - you've got three good reasons why your CV will be instantly tossed in the trash, no matter what your talents and level of education. Comfortable in Israel Amara says that when she was in Israel, she actually felt quite at home. She was invited here in June 2004 as part of a delegation of leftist women that met with Israeli and Palestinian women. She visited Tel Aviv ("didn't like it"), Jerusalem ("really loved it") and also the Muqata in Ramallah (a name she pronounces with a strong Arabic inflection). She wanted to meet Arafat, but her companions in the delegation did not want to embarrass France, which was upholding the Israeli boycott of him at the time. She acceded to their wishes and so missed a historic opportunity to meet the Rais, whose image on the television screen had captivated her as a child. "I felt very comfortable [in Israel]. I wasn't the object of special stares, as often happens toward foreigners. I didn't feel any racism, though I'm certain it exists. You have all the colors there so it's become almost natural to see white, yellow, brown." By your appearance, you could certainly pass for Israeli. Maybe that's the reason? "Maybe, but I'm not used to that. Here in France, I get looks. To the French, I'm not very 'French.' We're living here under a dominant culture. When your name is Francois and you're white with blue eyes, it's one thing. But when your name is Fatima and you've got a little color, the look you get is different. In Israel - because of the variety of people, I didn't feel that. In fact, I met a lot of young people there and it happened more than once that I was talking with a Palestinian and thinking he was an Israeli or vice-versa. Luckily, some of them were wearing a Star of David, otherwise I would have been confused all the time." Did your visit change your views in any way? "The point of view of the residents of the suburbs in France regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is very narrow: The young Palestinians whom I met asked me to explain to the youths of the suburbs that their anti-Semitic acts are not helping them. That it creates a boomerang that hurts them in world public opinion. I was very impressed by this talk from the Palestinians I met, which was so different than that of the youths of the suburbs - some of whom, by the way, were put up to what they did by Islamic activists." Is France anti-Semitic? Is it Islamophobic? "No on both counts. We're good students. We've managed to reduce the number of anti-Semitic acts, but it's not enough, we have to continually keep at it. As for Islamophobia - there's no such thing. It's an invention of the Islamists that shouldn't be taken up." But racism against Muslims - doesn't that exist in France? "You have to be careful with the terminology. Anti-Semitism is a fact and we know exactly what it has led to in our history. It can't be compared to anything else. I'm not prepared to accept moral preachings from some Muslim intellectuals who use the term 'Islamophobia' as a parallel to anti-Semitism. When it comes to acts against Muslims, their religion doesn't play any part. These are racists acts, period. You can't liken the Holocaust and the memory of it to my personal-family memory, which is of the colonization in Algeria. It's true that my father, who was born in the colonial period, was deprived of his rights. He was not allowed to attend school, and I can only regret these 'sad intervals' of French history. But that has nothing whatsoever in common with the Final Solution. The terrible Holocaust was the most barbaric act the world ever came up with. It's not like anything else at all. Not even the genocide in Rwanda." In Rwanda, it was an organized genocide, though. "But it wasn't set out or carried out in the same mechanical and sick fashion. In my opinion, the trap that some intellectuals try to use by putting everything on an equal footing in the name of some sort of competition among memories is the ultimate anti-Semitic act. A deluxe act of anti-Semitism. "Unfortunately, the problem of anti-Semitism isn't fully resolved in my country. It's returning in a new formula in the suburbs, where the Islamists have rotted our children's brains. If we had properly fulfilled our roles and if we had radically reduced anti-Semitism in France, including in administration, we wouldn't be witnessing its renewal today in the suburbs, in its Islamic form, together with its discourse, which has fascist overtones. It's all because of our cowardice and because we didn't want to admit and we didn't want to know. "I have Jewish friends who tell me - Fadela, we don't want to talk about memory. That's a choice that I respect, but if these things aren't said, then no one will be protected." In other words, on the question of teaching the Holocaust, you support President Sarkozy's controversial proposal to assign each elementary school pupil the task of remembering a single Jewish child who perished in the Holocaust? "Yes, I have no problem at all with it. Maybe because I didn't experience it myself. But I'm so anxious for it not to happen again that I'd do anything for that purpose. The idea of adopting the memory of a child who perished in the Holocaust - maybe not by an individual student but by an entire class - is good, effective and necessary. Especially today. "People talk about so many memories - colonization, slavery, etc. - but the emphasis has to be on the Holocaust, because we haven't sufficiently internalized the memory of it: Just two years ago, a young man from one of the suburbs was tortured for a month. And why? Because his name was Ilan [Halimi - A.P.] and he was a Jew. For a whole month. Can you imagine? A whole month. Thirty days. Do you understand what that means? Everyone knew about it. Or a lot of people, at least. And afterward they threw him out like a dog, and all because of his Jewish origin. It's intolerable. Just intolerable." Meanwhile, the Le Pen phenomenon has faded. How do you explain that? "The president's strategy has paid off. Sarkozy appealed to the part of Le Pen's electorate that is not racist: voters who turned to the extreme right because they felt lost, people who had reached a state of despair, who had come into a kind of schizophrenia, and serial fear, fear of the difference of the other, of the new Europe being built and the uncertainty over where exactly it was headed. These people were looking for a safe and well-defined haven: the nation, work and family - Le Pen's slogans - appeared to be such a haven to them. But President Sarkozy brought them out of there. Before the election he appealed to a broader audience - and so he got votes from people on the left and also from people on the extreme right who are not racists ideologically. He couldn't win over the genuine militants of Le Pen's National Front, of course, but, unlike what people sometimes think, they are not such a large number in our country." Still, the president's popularity rating is very low. "After eight months in office and after the expectations surrounding his election were so high, this is a normal thing to happen. It also has to do with a misunderstanding between the president and part of the public that doesn't relate to the exposure of his personal life. French public opinion is not like American public opinion. We're not attracted to a president or ministers who appear frequently in the popular magazines. That's not our thing." Is it only that? It has nothing to do with his policy? His flip-flopping? "No, it's a fact that the prime minister, [Francois] Fillon, who is charged with implementing the president's policy, is high in the polls. Also, even though the left won the recent local elections, the right did not suffer the big setback that was predicted for it. Everyone was saying, 'Sarko is finished,' but that's not the case." Sarkozy appointed you to the sensitive post of Urban Affairs Minister, for one thing, in the hope of conciliation with the population of the suburbs, which attacked him for the tough policy he pursued as Interior Minister. You yourself were quoted as saying that you wouldn't vote for Sarkozy in the next elections. Are you ideologically torn? "I'm a woman of the left who entered a right-wing government at the request of the president, for the purpose of making things happen. The Socialist Party today is a party that inspires despair. It has become the 'Party of the Well-Off.' It has abandoned its struggles, moved far from the populist sectors, from the workers, the immigrants and women. Its members are no longer interested in people like me, but only in their own personal careers. They have no political plan. I, on the other hand, am determined to pass the reforms my country so desperately needs. What interests me is bringing real change to the suburbs. The riots that broke out in the suburbs in 2005 only go to show just how urgent the need for change is. I have complete faith that the president and prime minister will stand beside me in the face of this challenge." A film crew from Canal Plus television has been following Fadela throughout the day. Now they are filming her giving "an interview to an Israeli newspaper." Both the reporter and the film crew seem mesmerized by her. But now, all of a sudden, she tells them she's had enough. "Out!," she says to them. "You've settled here long enough." And in a moment, they're out the door, somewhat chastened. She adds: "I'm constantly being covered. It's too bad my plan for improving the suburbs doesn't get the same interest." You have here in your office a caricature that portrays you as a beggar pleading for a little money from the president. "It's cute. It's very French." And it doesn't reflect reality? Some assert that your plan - "Hope for the Suburbs" - is flimsy and vague; that nothing is about to change. "Not at all. The government is entirely behind the idea. My ministry has submitted proposals in the fields of education, job training and employment, health, transportation, culture, sport and more. The president has said that by June, every minister must present a multi-year proposal for boosting the suburbs and allot part of his or her budget to it. All that's left for me to do is to pester the ministers to meet their commitment. Some have already done so." By the end of your term, will there be a significant improvement in the suburbs? "If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't have joined the government." In other words, you might yet vote for Sarkozy in the next elections? "On different issues, I now feel a lot closer to Nicolas Sarkozy than I do to my political - Socialist - family. But my decision will only be made once I examine the results of the government's policy. In any case, the president never asked me to adopt the values of the right or to join his UMP party. I have never been asked to keep quiet or to change my views and I've never been subjected to any pressures - not even when I used the word 'disgusting' in relation to the DNA initiative in connection with the immigration law." Do you understand the motivation behind that initiative? "No, I'm not ready to have them take DNA from people who want to come to France, in order to keep tabs on them administratively. That's not the Republic I know and love. It's not France's finest hour." Is it a racist idea? "It's an idea that makes all foreigners and those who want to come here suspect." Many in Israel feel that Europe is gradually becoming an Islamic continent. Are they right? "Islam, as a religion and a faith, should not be confused with the Islamic activists who make use of it to promote their political program. I'm a Muslim who is fighting the Islamists, but not Islam. To me, it's not a problem that Islam - like most other religions - is trying to recruit more believers. The problem occurs when the religion becomes a political project with fascist tendencies. That's something I won't consent to - either on the European continent or in my home, in France." But some parts of the continent are predicted to have a Muslim majority within 25 to 50 years. "The Judeo-Christian dominance is still very strong in Europe. The waves of immigration won't change that and won't lead to an inundation of the continent with Muslims, who at any rate are not a single homogenous bloc. Some are devout, some are observant and others are avowed secularists like me, who are not at all concerned with the religion and who believe that it ought to remain a private or even intimate matter." How do you relate to the speeches in which President Sarkozy chose to stress France's Christian heritage? "You can't deny the historic facts or France's Christian past. At the same time, the Republic and its values are secular, and I am very attached to these values. France's secularism is the outcome of a struggle and has precedence over all the religions." You supported the law that prohibits Muslim women from wearing headscarves in public schools. Turkey is currently moving in the opposite direction. Should it be prevented from joining Europe? "In the past, when I supported Turkey's entry into the EU, it derived from my desire to see the development of an Islam that would inherit the values of the period of the Enlightenment and the humanist and feminist values. I'm sorry to see that Turkey has passed a law that could adversely impact women's status, but its entry into the EU depends on a range of issues and not solely on the headscarf criterion. You must remember that in countries like Sweden, Germany and England, women are also permitted to wear headscarves in the schools. Would anyone ever think of demanding that they be expelled from the EU?" Islam and democracy - is this possible? "Yes. In countries like Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, Islam is the state religion and the citizens vote democratically." You would call those countries democratic? What about their human rights records, for instance? "I'm not saying they're perfect democracies, but they have the potential to be. If you don't accept this analysis, then you have to agree with the 'clash of civilizations' that our friend, the U.S. President, believes in - and that's a theory I do not accept at all. For in the Arab and Muslim countries there are people who are true democrats, who are fighting for liberty and equality; there are avowed humanists who are fighting for humanity's development. And at the same time, in the Christian world, there are also countries that are not democracies." But democratic elections in the Muslim world can bring anti-democratic forces to power. As happened in Algeria in 1991, and also in the case of Hamas. "As someone who respects democracy and is opposed to the Islamist forces, I was very, very miserable when Hamas won the elections. I made statements in the past that show I predicted this development. I regretted the policy of demonizing Yasser Arafat and the blow that was inflicted on the PLO's credibility. It was clear to me that this would help the rise of Hamas. "At any rate, no one can be allowed to question Israel's right to exist, as that psycho president of Iran is doing. At the same time, action must be taken to establish the Palestinian state - which would resolve a large part of the Middle East problem." Welcoming Ahmadinejad Dozens of photographs grace the long, wooden buffet in Fadela's office. Here she is with Sarkozy on a state visit to Algeria; in another one she is with him during a visit to the suburbs. A framed photograph of Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani prime minister who was assassinated last December, has been given a place of honor. "Her death upset me greatly," says Fadela. "What's happening in Pakistan is just an example of how one shouldn't view the Middle East solely from the Israeli-Palestinian perspective. Today there is a need for a much broader outlook: Islamic terror is hurting the Muslim countries the most. We have seen it in Saudi Arabia. Also in Iran, Iraq and Turkey there are clashes of political currents, some of which wish to install a kind of new Islamic caliphate. "Paradoxically, Saudi Arabia could become an objective ally in the fight against Islamic terror. This terror and the fear of the rise of an axis of Islamic countries that would unite to form a significant power should lead to a uniting of counter-forces of the Western states with the democratic states in the Maghreb and in Africa." Does this "psycho president," as you call him, frighten you? "Anyone who says he's not afraid of someone like him is also crazy." Some say that "his bark is worse than his bite," that he's acting this way for domestic motives and that in any case he's not the one who really leads Iran. "He's certainly acting out of domestic motives, but his main aim is to make Iran a significant player on the international stage. His actions are also connected to the internal struggles between the Shi'ites and the Sunnis - which is also the reason that Saudi Arabia is in such a sensitive situation." Gadhafi's visit to Paris ignited a storm of debate. What was your position? "So that criticism can be voiced [against people like Gadhafi - A.P.], I think such visits have to be allowed." But was all the pomposity of the event really necessary? "He (Gadhafi) is the president of a state. But the protocol isn't the important thing here. President Sarkozy's method is new. It has to be given a chance. I believe that it will bring quick results and I'm also glad to see France returning - after a prolonged absence - to the international arena and playing a role there. It's no big deal to talk only with partners. A monologue of democrats won't be able to move the world in the right direction." Should Ahmadinejad be welcomed in France, then, too? "Yes. We should have the ability to welcome even the worst tyrants so we can tell them to their faces what we have to say. At the same time, we have to ensure that the international authorities take measures against states that do not accept certain things, like human rights, for instance. That's what is important." What is your position regarding the publication of the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed? "As a devoted advocate of freedom of expression, I support it. I understand that some may be offended by it, but I still don't understand why it should cause such a great fuss." And do you also support the distribution of the film by Dutch right-winger Geert Wilders, who claims that the Koran is fascist and compares it to "Mein Kampf"? "Yes!" she replies with fervor. "I'm against the comparison that is made with 'Mein Kampf,' but I demand that I be allowed to fight so people can express themselves in accordance with their thoughts and beliefs." Even if the intention is to provoke? "Yes. No film about Islam or caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb on his head will shake my outlook or my beliefs. If there are people who think that Islam is a religion of terrorists, I need to be able to hear them say this and to confront them on it. This is the essence of democracy." Fadela Amara - success story? Role model? Where will she be 10 or 20 years from now? "Role model? I wouldn't advise it. I've never had a career. Everything has happened randomly and it all started with a drama - when I lost my brother and understood that injustice must be fought; but I paid a price that was too high. I would wish for others to have a calmer and more stable career. When I was president of Ni Putes Ni Soumises, I got a lot of death threats. It wasn't easy. "I don't know what the future holds in store for me, but I do have just one obsession and that is to succeed in the extraordinary gamble I took upon myself in the suburbs. To bring these areas back into the bosom of the Republic and have them go back to being popular areas where it's good to live."W Bookmark to del.icio.us   Carter's contacts Report: Ex-U.S. president Carter to meet with Hamas leader in Syria. Warning shouts Officer: Palestinians warned Israelis of terrorist infiltration.

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