
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/a_s_170408e.htm
Un rapport accablant !
Liberté Egalité Fraternité ! L'islam est incompatible avec la démocratie, la république et la déclaration des droits de l'homme ! " Le racisme est la plus basse forme de stupidité humaine, l'islamophobie est le summum du bon sens. " Merci au site de SIOE pour cette belle formule. Sites américains à visiter absolument : http://www.antijihadresistance.com/ http://www.unitedamericancommittee.org/ et : http://www.a-voix-haute.com et http://www.bivouac-id.com/
Within the worldwide Muslim community, there are a number of actions that most clear thinking individuals would consider barbarous towards women. They include stonings, honor killings, clitorectomies (female circumcisions), forced clothing (hijabs, burkas, etc.), and wife-beatings. While many Muslims have suggested that these acts are cultural rather than religious tenets of Islam, one Islamic scholar, Jamal Badawi, has written a book using the religion to justify the latter act. If he feels this way, one has to ask why so many Muslims, including female Muslims, continue to embrace him and his teachings.
This month’s edition of Southern California In Focus, a publication subsidized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (
Attached to the page containing the In Focus interview are images of the covers of three books Badawi has authored. One of the books, Gender Equity in Islam, is his most widely known work, mainly for its justification of the beating of wives by their husbands.
In the book, Badawi wrote, “In the event of a family dispute, the Qur’an exhorts the husband to treat his wife kindly and not to overlook her positive aspects. If the problem relates to the wife’s behavior, her husband may exhort her and appeal for reason. In most cases, this measure is likely to be sufficient. In cases where the problem continues, the husband may express his displeasure in another peaceful manner by sleeping in a separate bed from hers. There are cases, however where a wife persists in deliberate mistreatment of her husband and disregard for her marital obligations. Instead of divorce, the husband may resort to another measure that may save the marriage, at least in some cases. Such a measure is more accurately described as a gentle tap on the body...”
He then quoted directly from the Quran to exhibit the origins of his beliefs. He stated, “As to those women on whose part you fear disloyalty and ill conduct, admonish them (first), (next) refuse to share their beds (and last) beat them (lightly).” Badawi described this as a “permissible beating” and said that Islamic jurists have determined that this could be performed by means of a miswak (small toothbrush).
Badawi wrote Gender Equity in Islam under the aegis of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), an organization whose leaders have called for the destruction of
Indeed, Badawi has been tied to the most radical of Muslim organizations. Currently, he is a board member of
Another group Badawi is associated with is Islam Online (IOL), a website that supports suicide bombings, mandates terrorist attacks against American troops, and discusses how to behead humans. Badawi is an IOL Shari’ah (Islamic law) Scholar and has written fatwas (legal decisions) on a number of issues for the site.
In one fatwa, ‘Wife Beating in Islamic Perspective,’ dated April of 2004, Badawi repeated nearly word for word what he stated in his book. But instead of referring to the abuse as a “permissible beating,” he called it a “permissible striking” and a “light striking.”
With respect to polygamy, another form of spousal abuse, in the May 2005 IOL fatwa, ‘Having a Second Wife in Western Countries,’ Badawi wrote, “[W]hy would a particular person want to have a second wife, even though it might be acceptable or legitimate under the Islamic Shari’ah? Because there is also a spirit of why polygamy has been permitted even though it has not been codified in the Qur’an... If the Western world reciprocated to Muslims in the West the same kind of tolerance and acceptance of autonomy in issues pertinent to religious practice, including marriage, I think polygamy would be quite legitimate, and there would be no contradiction between what is permissible under the Islamic Shari’ah and what is permissible under the Western laws.”
Badawi also has his own radio show hosted on IslamiCity, a website that repeatedly calls for the murder of Jews and repeatedly “curses” Jews and Christians.
On one of his shows, titled ‘Marital Relations V (Husband’s Rights),’ he cited the “Prophet Muhammad,” saying that husbands have “claims” on their wives, as if they were property, and that one of the “basic criteria” for wives to be eligible to reach “paradise” (Heaven) is that they must “obey” their husbands. He labeled Muhammad’s statement, “If I were to command any human being to prostrate [bow] before any other human being, I would have ordered the wife to prostrate before her husband, because of his claim on her,” a “Prophetic saying.”
And on his IslamiCity show, titled ‘Marital Problems,’ with examples from his religious texts, he went into detail about how a husband should come to beat his wife. He stated the following:
“[In] case of persistent defiance and lack of cooperation on the part of the wife, in a way that threatens the integrity of the family, there is a measure to be taken, what you might call a phased discipline that could be implemented.
“The first one that the verse mentions is kind exhortation... The husband could go to her, could appeal to his intimate relationship with her, appeal to love and affection. He may appeal to the fear of G-d and, being G-d conscious, remind her of her duty, as Islam prescribes, and the need to protect her future and the future of the family... to respond to reasonable requests and reasonable exhortation on the part of her husband.
“Well, needless to say that the majority of cases, any wife or woman who is reasonably decent and [a] reasonable person is very likely to respond to this kind type of approach, softer type of approach. But again, we know that not every woman would be that sensitive, that decent...
“So the second measure that the passage mentions is also the possibility of suspending [his] intimate relationship with the wife... Some jurists say not even to sleep in a different bed, but simply not to approach the wife for [an] intimate relationship. The idea behind it is to try to bring that haughtiness – being haughty, rebellious, inconsiderate, unreasonable – to bring this down to a reasonable level by showing that... one cannot accept this kind of relationship or treatment...
“Now, again, if this doesn’t work, which would be in [a] lesser number of cases, what to do? Divorce? If the first and second step does not work, well, there is one more thing, which may be resorted to as a last resort, just within the private relationship between husband and wife, before divorce, to avert the possibility of divorce. It need not be useful in all cases, but in some cases it may be, and that is a light and symbolical chastisement...
“It’s not just because somebody got angry or had a bad day or anything of that sort. It really deals with a situation of serious infraction, serious breaking of orders and discipline within the family. Like some jurists indicated that some of the cases of rebellion would be like a wife who just leaves her husband’s house and stays in some other place, refuses to respond to any request or reasonable or fair demand on his part...
“[C]hastisement should be such that it can never lead to injury or even leave a mark on the body... [A] great companion of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, Ibn Abbas... he said, “What chastisement with what?” He was himself wondering... it has to be very light, should not leave a mark, and even in that case what could be used? He said a miswak... something like a toothbrush. Imagine chastising with a toothbrush... [A] slight thing like that might lead the wife to throw herself in her husband’s arm and cry, and that might mend the situation rather than going through a drastic action like divorce.”
For Southern California In Focus to refer to Jamal Badawi as “one of the world’s greatest minds” is to ignore the violence that Badawi defends and rationalizes. And given the fact that the Board President and former Managing Editor of In Focus is Asma Ahmad, a woman, is doubly troubling. No doubt, Muslim women across the globe are suffering, because of what Badawi and his ilk have used their religion to write and say.
The lead story for this month’s In Focus is ‘A Few Good Men: American Muslim women bemoan lack of ‘good’ male suitors.’ Pictured on the cover is a sad girl in a wedding dress. It’s no wonder Muslim women are finding it hard to locate good men, when people like Badawi and his supporters exist only to ruin their lives.
Olivier Guitta
A few months ago Bernard Squarcini the head of the DST (Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire), the French equivalent of the FBI, told the French daily Libération regarding Islamic radicalization: "An ideological transformation can be done in three months on the Web. An individual can at night auto-radicalize himself via the Web and get in touch with leaders of terrorist organizations." This assessment shows how dire the situation is in Europe when it comes to al-Qaida's use of the Web.
Al-Qaida uses the web for four different tasks: propaganda; communication, mostly to instruct those in the field; training future combatants, a kind of online university of terrorism; and to send messages to the enemy, mostly to the West.
For instance, one of the most popular jihadist sites in France is one which translates books on the jihad in French and gives lessons on urban guerilla tactics. (This site got more than 3 million visits from France alone). Another Web site explains how to get weapons in the West (hide, assemble and breakdown) and how to manufacture bombs from products found in supermarkets.
The propaganda primarily targets youngsters. Some of them join the virtual jihad or "webtifada", i.e. cyber criminality.
In March 2006, the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Exterieure), the French equivalent of the CIA, tracked down a forum where jihadists recruited hackers to destroy "infidels'" Web sites and government sites. The jihadists recommended: "If you can't slash their throats, then at least destroy their sites." And on May 15, 2006 the Metz, France police arrested a young man who, under the alias Yanis, had attacked 1,161 sites including 710 linked to the Muhammad cartoons controversy.
Fortunately in Europe, even though the number is growing only a minority is actually joining the virtual jihad. According to Louis Caprioli, ex-boss of the anti-terror unit of the DST, the number of French volunteers in Iraq is in the tens. Confirming this, expert Walter Akmouche states that statistically, to get one jihadi, you must contact an average 45,000 people.
Which vehicle do the jihadis use on the Web? According to the DST, the chat room Paltalk is regularly used to hide operations. They also use Instant Messaging services such as Messenger or Skype and "dead e-mail boxes" which allow them, with the username and password, to retrieve unsent messages. But they also exchange information and coded files on forums devoted to soccer, music or any topic totally unrelated to Islam.
It is important to note that to access true terrorist sites; one has to be an insider and needs to know the real number-coded URL address, which often changes.
Also after years of research, al-Qaida has developed software called "Secrets of Mujahedin," that allows secure exchange in Arabic on electronic networks. It has allegedly been in use for over a year on clandestine forums close to al-Qaida, especially for jihadist groups in Iraq and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. This has been a formidable weapon for al-Qaida and numerous intelligence services and private companies have been trying to break it.
How is Europe facing this threat? First by closely monitoring jihadist Web sites. For instance, last year, Holland devoted 10 million euros (about $15 million) to fighting extremism. Thus, more than 150 Internet sites broadcasting extremist ideology were the subject of complaints and were restricted.
In France, about 30 potentially dangerous sites are monitored by some units of the UCLAT (Unité de Coordination de la Lutte antiterroriste), the French counterterrorism coordination unit. Software allows them to trace back the origin of a server or the IP address of a user and if they act fast, they can trace the network and use it against the Islamists using it. For instance, the recent monitoring of a forum allowed the unit to trace a couple of Salafist groups in the suburbs of Paris that were recruiting jihadis and organizing their trip.
One of the main problems facing European authorities is that simply shutting down Web sites is not very efficient since these sites just end up operating under new names.
European countries are also using the legal tool to fight al-Qaida's use of the Web in Europe. In a first, a Swiss court last summer sentenced several individuals including the widow of the killer of Ahmad Shah Massoud, Afghanistan's Northern Alliance's leader killed by al-Qaida on September 9, 2001, and her boyfriend, for having created and operated four Web sites and chat rooms for extremist propaganda and exchange of information by terrorist groups.
European authorities are taking this issue very seriously. On Feb. 1, France's interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie told the French daily Le Figaro that the use of the Web by terrorists was "one of my major concerns, and one of the priorities assigned to the [security] services. This requires additional material, forces specialized in fighting cyber-criminality, legal resources. I want us to be able to stop the terrorist propaganda, find the operational networks, track them down and prevent them from acting."
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Olivier Guitta, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a foreign affairs and counterterrorism consultant, is the founder of the newsletter The Croissant (www.thecroissant.com).
The Situation
Islam represents 20% of the world's population and is growing. Islam is united, has a vision, a strategy and successful tactics.
Political correctness and multi-culturalism rule our world. Our government will not help in this war and instead gives aid and comfort to the "minority" Muslims. Our government is staffed by multiculturalists who will give every edge to Muslims. Our schools have been occupied by the Muslim Brotherhood and the dhimmi leftist professors.
Kafirs are divided into Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, conservative and liberal. Each of the divisions has further divisions. The relations between the groups is marked by historical rivalries and hatreds. No group comprehends the suffering of others at the hands of Islam. So not only do none of the victims know their own story, they do not know the story of the others.
The Muslims have a great momentum. They are taking over by birth and immigration. We have fewer children while Muslims have huge families. Osama bin Laden has 53 children. Demographic statistics show that France will become Islamic in the year 2020. Run the population numbers.
Islam knows us well. Islam knows our history, secret shame, rivalries and hatreds, weaknesses and divisions. Kafirs don't know anything about Islam. We may fear and dislike it but that is just "feelings", not knowledge. Our so-called experts (none of whom know the actual doctrine of political Islam) make apologies and tell us that all of Islam's problems are caused by our poor governmental policies.
We are filled with cultural self-loathing, demoralized, fatalistic, nihilistic, too fat and too rich. (Wealthy people are weak at war, they have too much to protect.) We have lost the mind of war and feel that "peace" is the moral high ground. We are pacifists in the face of jihad. Our artists extol the virtues of peace with no knowledge about what happens when peaceful people are vanquished.
A Strategy for the Weak
At this stage of our intellectual and emotional development, our strategies are limited. We are too weak to attack Islam and need an opening strategy for now.
First, we must learn the doctrine of political Islam. We must know the enemy. We must also know who our allies are and who are the allies of Islam. We have two sets of enemies-the far enemy, Islam, and the near enemy-those who apologize for Islam, the dhimmis.
The thought of actually attacking Islam is too frightening at this stage of the game. However, we can make flanking attacks on our enemy's allies, the apologists. Even dhimmis can think about attacking or pressuring the near enemy.
We can make a flanking attack on our enemy by attacking his strategies. We must expose Islam through its doctrine from the Koran, the Sunna (the Hadith and the Sira). According to Sun Tsu in The Art of War, attacking your enemy's strategy is the highest level strategy. And Islam's strategy is laid out in the Trilogy. We now have the weapons, the books exposing their strategy.
Another principle of Sun Tsu is to shape the enemy. Islam always poses as a religion to cloak their politics . It is useless to attack a religion, so Islamic politics are under the radar. We must shape Islam as a political doctrine. We must attack the far enemy-political Islam.
We are fighting the wrong foe. Over the past six years, the nature of the international Islamist terrorist threat to the West has changed dramatically, but Western governments are still fighting the last war -- set up to fight an old al-Qaeda that is now largely contained. Unless we understand this sea change, we will not be able to ward off the new menace.
The version of al-Qaeda that Osama bin Laden founded is a fading force. After a week in which five detainees who allegedly planned the Sept. 11, 2001, atrocities were arraigned before a U.S. military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it's worth remembering that the terrorists behind 9/11 were mostly young, well-educated middle-class expatriates from Muslim countries who had become radicalized abroad, especially in the West. Such key 9/11 plotters as Mohamed Atta, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ziad Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehhi met and became radicalized as students in Hamburg, then went to Afghanistan looking for al-Qaeda. But over the past six years, most of the professional terrorists who fit this profile have been eliminated during the U.S.-led manhunt for "high-value targets." The few that remain are huddled in the Afghan-Pakistani border area, struggling to extend their reach beyond Pakistan.
That old guard is still dangerous and still plotting spectacular attacks. But it is the new wave that more urgently requires our attention. This cohort is composed of homegrown young wannabes who dream of glory and adventure, who yearn to belong to a heroic vanguard and to root their lives in a greater sense of meaning. Inspired by tales of past heroism, they hope to emulate their predecessors, even though, for the most part, they can no longer link up with al-Qaeda Central in the Pakistani badlands. Their potential numbers are so great that they must now be seen as the main terrorist threat to the West.
This threat is not well understood by U.S. policymakers. After 9/11, I realized that spectacular instances of collective violence such as terrorism and the Holocaust tend to be the product of small-group dynamics, not individual action. (As a former CIA case officer who ran programs in Afghanistan in the 1980s, I learned how hard it was to motivate groups to perform field operations.) I began putting together graphs and charts to see how friendships and kinship groups had shaped al-Qaeda's networks. I was able to recognize these concepts precisely because of my isolation from the U.S. government, which was focusing on old, top-down, command-and-control theories. And I worry again today that those charged with protecting us are not being imaginative or rigorous enough to understand the next generation of jihadists.
Unlike their pre-9/11 predecessors, today's would-be terrorists are usually the poorly educated teenage children of unskilled and secular Muslim immigrants. They have been born, raised and radicalized in their host countries (unlike, say, Atta, an Egyptian who recoiled at modern Germany). This new generation's youth culture celebrates a sort of "jihadist cool."
Consider the "Hofstad Netwerk" in the Netherlands, which I believe is typical of this new wave. It consists mostly of young people who were born in Holland or immigrated to that country very early in life. They met around their neighborhoods, in Internet cafes or in online chat rooms, then self-radicalized through their admiration for the supposed Islamist heroes fighting the West. One man linked to this cohort, Mohammed Bouyeri, repeatedly shot the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 on an Amsterdam street. Other members of this informal network reportedly planned to murder prominent Dutch politicians and bomb the Dutch parliament, a nuclear power plant and Amsterdam's international airport.
Or consider another network that sprang up in placid surroundings: the group of second-generation immigrant men and youths in the Toronto suburbs who Canadian authorities allege plotted to set off truck bombs in Toronto, bomb the Canadian Parliament and kill Prime Minister Stephen Harper. They reportedly spent time praising their terrorist heroes on the Internet and living out mujaheddin fantasies by playing paintball games in rural Ontario.
What makes next-gen terrorists tick? How did these ordinary kids come to be so attracted to political violence? The process of radicalization consists of four prongs, which need not occur in sequence. Here's the recipe: having a sense of moral outrage; seeing this anger as part of a "war on Islam"; believing that this view is consistent with one's everyday grievances; and mobilizing through networks.
Many Muslims feel a powerful sense of moral outrage at the treatment of their coreligionists, be it the sight of U.S. troops killing Muslims in Iraq or the aftermath of police harassment of local mosques. To lead to political violence, a next-generation jihadist must come to believe one simple sound bite: that there is a "war against Islam."
Unlike their fanatical predecessors in the old al-Qaeda, the new terrorists are not particularly religious. The defendants in the Hofstad trials, the March 2004 Madrid bombing trial, the Toronto case and the many trials in Britain are not intellectuals, let alone Islamic scholars. Many became religious only a few months before their arrests, and some are not religious at all. The new generation is not likely to be swayed by abstract arguments. Young jihadist wannabes do not go to Iraq to have theological debates; they go there to blow themselves up.
The problem has been worse in Europe than in the United States. In the land of the American dream and the melting pot, a broader, more inclusive view of American-ness undermines the jihadist insistence that the U.S. government is at war with its Muslim citizens. Notwithstanding some ugly jeering by nativist bigots and some clumsy profiling by law enforcement, ordinary Muslim Americans simply do not feel some "war on Islam" in their daily experiences.
But things are far less cheerful in Europe. The children of unskilled Muslim immigrants there face discrimination across the continent, resulting in striking unemployment rates. Many non-Muslim Europeans resent having to compete with Muslim immigrants for low-level jobs and worry that poor immigrant suburbs mean higher crime rates. Anti-immigrant sentiment, which propelled far-right parties to win around 20 percent of the vote in contests in France, Austria and Switzerland in recent years, only reinforces the message of rejection -- and produces grist for the terrorists' mill.
There are many angry young Muslims in the world, of course. What transforms a tiny number of them into terrorists is mobilization by networks. Until a few years ago, these networks were made up of face-to-face groups: local gangs of young immigrants such as the Hofstad group or expatriate students such as the Hamburg cell that planned 9/11. These cliques of friends became radicalized together. The group acted as an echo chamber -- amplifying grievances, intensifying members' bonds to one another, deepening their rejection of the values of the host society and making it easier to gradually separate themselves from it.
Over the past two or three years, face-to-face radicalization has started to be replaced by online radicalization. People's beliefs used to be changed in small cliques; now they are being altered in jihadist Internet forums. These forums have become virtual marketplaces for extremist ideas -- the "invisible hand" organizing terrorist activities worldwide. They are transforming the terrorist movement, attracting ever younger members and women, who can now join in the discussions.
The West has successfully contained the terrorists who perpetrated 9/11. But al-Qaeda has adapted from the bottom up, producing a network that's scattered, disconnected and decentralized. The new jihadist movement doesn't have an operational leader, but it is every bit as dangerous as the old one.
Marc Sageman is a sociologist, forensic psychiatrist and scholar in residence at the New York Police Department. He is the author of "Understanding Terror Networks" and "Leaderless Jihad."
Alexis de Tocqueville:
I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. So far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.
Winston Churchill said as much in 1899, but with chilling significance for Europe today:
Dans les couloirs encombrés du tribunal de Sana'a, personne n'avait pris le temps de la remarquer. Cela faisait des heures que la frêle Nojoud Ali, drapée dans un voile noir, patientait, en priant pour qu'une oreille attentive puisse l'écouter. À midi, la foule se dissipa et un juge finit par s'étonner de ce petit bout de femme recroquevillé sur ce banc désormais vide. «Qu'est-ce que tu attends ?», lui demanda-t-il. «Mon divorce !», lui répondit-elle. À 10 ans, Nojoud fait partie de ces milliers de filles yéménites, mariées au plus jeune âge, selon de vieilles traditions tribales qui perdurent essentiellement en province. Mais, fait exceptionnel, c'est la première fois qu'une jeune mariée osa, ce 2 avril 2008, se rebeller contre les traditions en vigueur. Jusqu'à entamer un procès contre son mari, Faez Ali Thamer, trois fois plus âgé qu'elle. Et à le gagner avec brio, grâce à une mobilisation sans précédent de défenseurs des droits de l'homme et de journaux locaux. Une vraie première. «Au début, j'avais honte d'en parler», murmure la petite fille haute comme trois pommes qui a accepté de nous raconter le récit de ses mésaventures. Avant d'enchaîner, cette fois-ci sur un ton plein d'assurance qui dénote une étonnante maturité acquise au cours de son combat de deux mois : «Maintenant, je veux retourner à l'école et je veux étudier pour devenir avocate !»
C'est au domicile parental, dans le quartier de Dares, où elle a retrouvé ses frères et sœurs, qu'elle nous reçoit. Coincée dans une ruelle poussiéreuse, la maisonnette est composée de deux minuscules pièces sans ventilateur. Des coussins jetés à même le sol forment l'unique mobilier du salon. Un habitat vétuste, typique de l'installation de nombreux villageois venus tenter leur chance dans la capitale, Sana'a, pour n'y trouver que misère et pauvreté, comme Ali Mohammad al-Ahdel, le père de Nojoud. Actuellement au chômage, ce dernier, originaire d'un village de la province de Hajja, doit nourrir deux femmes et seize enfants. Des raisons qui expliquent, bien souvent, la fréquence des mariages précoces, en échange d'un petit pécule. «Quand Faez Ali Thamer, également originaire de Wadi La'a, est venu demander la main de Nojoud, j'ai tout de suite accepté pour pouvoir la protéger. Ma première fille a été kidnappée, je ne voulais pas qu'il lui arrive la même chose», se défend-il, en se réfugiant dans des lamentations douteuses. À ses côtés, Shoya, la mère de Nojoud, acquiesce d'un geste de la tête : «Il nous avait promis d'être respectueux.» Selon la loi en vigueur, l'âge du mariage est fixé à 15 ans pour les filles. Mais de nombreux parents dérogent à la règle en établissant un contrat de mariage stipulant que les relations sexuelles sont interdites jusqu'à ce que la jeune fille soit «prête». Or, ce contrat est rarement respecté.
Le soir des noces, c'est la fête pour Nojoud, qui ne réalise pas bien ce qui lui arrive. «On m'a offert trois robes pour mon mariage, deux jaunes et une marron. Elles étaient très jolies», se souvient-elle, en plissant ses yeux en forme d'amande. Cette fan des jeux de cache-cache qui aime le chocolat, comme la plupart des filles de son âge, n'avait qu'un seul rêve, à part celui d'avoir un jour la télévision : «Ressembler à une tortue, pour me glisser dans l'eau, car je ne suis jamais allée au bord de la mer.» Le mariage, elle ne savait pas trop bien ce que cela signifiait, à l'exception des cadeaux qui viennent avec et d'une maison toute neuve. Ce n'est qu'une fois arrivée au nouveau domicile conjugal, dans le village de Wadi La'a, qu'elle prend conscience de son calvaire. Après lui avoir indiqué sa chambre à coucher, son mari lui fait vite comprendre ses intentions. «Il a voulu qu'on dorme dans le même lit. J'ai refusé et il s'est mis à me courir après. Il a fini par m'attraper et par me faire des choses sales et désagréables», raconte-t-elle. Chaque soir, à la nuit tombée, le même scénario se reproduit : «Dès qu'il rentrait du travail, ça recommençait. Je pleurais en le suppliant de me laisser seule. Il me tapait avec un bâton. J'avais beau crier, personne ne pouvait m'entendre.»
Quelques semaines plus tard, elle se résigne, honteuse, à en parler à ses parents lors d'une visite à Sana'a. Mais ils font la sourde oreille. «Mes cousins m'auraient tué si je déshonorais la famille en demandant le divorce pour ma fille», nous dit le père, engoncé dans sa tunique blanche. Nojoud, elle, refuse de baisser les bras. À force de frapper à toutes les portes, elle finit par recueillir, le mois suivant, le conseil d'une de ses tantes. «Va au tribunal, c'est la seule solution !», lui lance-t-elle, en glissant quelques pièces dans le creux de sa main. Tout juste de quoi monter dans un bus des transports publics.
Dans ce bâtiment si impressionnant, Nojoud se sent perdue. Interpellé par le courage et la détresse de la petite fille, Mohammed al-Ghadhi, le juge, décide de l'héberger chez lui pendant trois jours, et de placer le père et le mari en détention provisoire. Mais la demande de divorce, unique en son genre, n'est pas facile à régler. «Selon les mœurs yéménites, où les règles tribales ont souvent la priorité sur la loi en vigueur, ce genre d'affaires est d'habitude étouffé», confie l'avocate Chadha Nasser, qui se porta volontaire pour défendre Nojoud. Cette spécialiste des droits de l'homme s'en remet alors à son intuition. Le jour du procès, elle convoque les associations féministes et la presse. Le sujet fait la une du quotidien Yemen Times. Sous la pression de l'opinion publique, le divorce est finalement prononcé. Un tabou est brisé. «Ce procès a enfoncé une porte fermée», se réjouit Chadha Nasser. Depuis, une petite dizaine d'autres filles ont osé entamer des procédures judiciaires contre leur mari. Nojoud, elle, prépare son retour à l'école. Elle a réintégré le foyer parental, mais bénéficie du soutien et de la protection de plusieurs associations, ainsi que de son avocate, sa «seconde mère», comme elle l'appelle. «Quand je serai grande, je veux défendre les gens opprimés. Comme Chadha !», dit-elle.

Le week-end, «c'est la guerre aux Buttes-Chaumont», résume Jonathan, jeune juif du XIXe. Comme un abcès de fixation. «Alors que les actes antisémites diminuent en France depuis 2007, le XIXe arrondissement de Paris reste un point noir», analyse Ariel Goldman, qui dirige le Service de protection de la communauté juive (SPCJ). Sur l'ensemble de la France, le SPCJ a recensé 121 actes entre janvier et mai 2007 et 106 cette année, dont de nombreuses menaces et 62 actions. Le XIXe est particulièrement touché.
Depuis un mois, le climat, déjà dégradé, a dégénéré. «La situation est alarmante. Il y a une tension intercommunautaire très forte, ce qui m'inquiète particulièrement», confirme le maire socialiste du XIXe arrondissement de Paris, Roger Madec, qui a réclamé dimanche le déploiement d'effectifs de police supplémentaires pour rétablir le calme.
Dans ces batailles rangées, il est parfois difficile de discerner agresseurs et agressés. Mi-juin, une course-poursuite avait donné lieu à des arrestations de jeunes juifs, «alors qu'ils étaient les victimes», assure Sammy Ghozlan, du Bureau de vigilance contre l'antisémitisme. «Ils se sentent obligés de se rassembler pour se protéger», avance encore ce responsable. Qui reconnaît cependant que certaines bandes de juifs veulent aussi en découdre. Ces heurts, auxquels s'ajoutent des agressions, ont réveillé l'inquiétude.
«Cela crée beaucoup d'anxiété chez les gens de la communauté juive, notamment chez les enfants», déplore le directeur du Crif, Haïm Musicant. D'autant que beaucoup de familles juives du XIXe s'y sont installées ces dernières années, attirées par les écoles confessionnelles et le réseau religieux. L'arrondissement compte maintenant près de 150 lieux de culte juifs. Certains y sont aussi venus pour fuir l'hostilité des banlieues où ils vivaient auparavant, notamment de la Seine-Saint-Denis toute proche. Aline a quitté La Courneuve en 2002 : «C'était devenu intenable.» Elle décide alors de s'installer rue Petit, pour retrouver «la sécurité et la communauté, à un prix raisonnable dans Paris». Mais, après quelques années de répit, ses filles sont à nouveau confrontées «à des regards hostiles, des insultes». La crainte de l'agression gratuite est revenue, dit-elle.
Les religieux, notamment les Loubavitchs, assurent cependant vivre en «bon voisinage» avec les cités sensibles, qui surplombent le triangle où se concentrent les foyers juifs. Mais le quotidien est émaillé d'incidents : «Les bandes descendent pour voler», affirme un commerçant. Dans le quartier, les familles juives font figure de privilégiés par rapport aux cités voisines.
Mais au-delà de cette délinquance crapuleuse, se profile l'antisémitisme le plus basique. Un «J'aime pas les juifs», qui transcende les origines et les religions, à en croire les policiers chargés des interpellations.
La cause palestinienne, maintes fois évoquée lors des attaques antisémites qui avaient resurgi fin 2000 en France, semble totalement oubliée… contrairement aux stéréotypes antijuifs.
Le gouvernement néerlandais s’était engagé à me protéger aussi longtemps que dureraient les menaces de mort. Mais quand j’ai décidé de partir aux Etats-Unis, il y a eu un revirement, les autorités m’indiquant que la protection promise n’était assurée qu’à l’intérieur des Pays-Bas. Les Américains ont pourtant expliqué qu’ils ne pouvaient prendre le relais : ils n’assurent que la sécurité des non-Américains dotés d’un statut officiel, pas celle d’une simple citoyenne. Le département d’Etat a donc recommandé au gouvernement des Pays-Bas d’engager une société de protection privée, leur assurant que le gouvernement américain les aiderait en matière de renseignement. Les Hollandais ont refusé, et j’ai reçu une lettre me prévenant qu’on mettait fin à ma protection le 1er octobre. Depuis, le premier ministre m’a demandé de repartir aux Etats-Unis et de trouver moi-même des fonds pour ma protection. Je viens donc de lancer une fondation pour laquelle je mendie actuellement de l’argent.
Salman Rushdie dit que vous êtes “la première réfugiée d’Europe occidentale depuis l’Holocauste”. Qu’en est-il ?
La Hollande veut bien me donner la liberté de parole, mais pas la liberté de mouvement. Alors que faire ? Courageusement, le Danemark offre de m’accueillir et de me protéger. Mais c’est aux Etats-Unis que je veux vivre aujourd’hui. Mon expression y sera plus libre et plus efficace. Car la vérité, c’est qu’il est devenu impossible de parler librement de l’islam sur le continent européen. L’état d’esprit actuel de l’élite implique d’éviter tout débat par peur d’offenser les musulmans, et conduit à satisfaire les exigences des islamistes, même s’il s’agit de faire taire les gens comme moi.
Ce sujet, l’islam, deviendrait une sorte de tabou ?
La critique de l’islam est un tabou inscrit au coeur même de la religion. Mais que les sociétés européennes, héritières des Lumières, s’imposent à elles-mêmes ce tabou, voilà qui est totalement nouveau. Et stupéfiant ! Le judaïsme, le bouddhisme, le communisme… Tout mouvement collectif ou théologique doit être ouvert aux critiques. Il n’y a que l’islam qui les refuse et qui, d’ailleurs, en soit exempté en Europe.
La décision du gouvernement hollandais résonne-t-elle comme un avertissement pour tous ceux qui, en Europe, souhaitent débattre de l’islam ?
Evidemment ! Mon cas fait passer la question de la liberté d’expression de la théorie à la pratique. Vous pouvez exprimer votre opinion, mais votre tête sera coupée. Si vous êtes musulman et que vous devenez un ex-musulman, si vous êtes une femme et que vous critiquez l’islam et son oppression, le prix à payer est la vie. Vivre dans une démocratie ne change rien à l’affaire. C’est un enjeu majeur pour nos pays, qu’aucun personnage politique d’envergure n’a encore osé prendre à bras-le-corps. Comme si ce n’était qu’un simple incident, alors que c’est rien de moins que la liberté d’expression qui se joue ! Il n’y a pas de loi pour protéger les gens comme moi dans nos pays, pas de fonds, pas de mouvement.
Il y a quand même déjà eu le cas de Salman Rushdie…
Mais son cas était lui aussi considéré comme isolé ! Personne ne réalise que nous sommes en fait le sommet de l’iceberg, qu’il y a sur le continent des tas de musulmans ou d’anciens musulmans menacés, bâillonnés, et que cette censure concerne tout le monde.
Pensez-vous que la France doive prendre position sur ce sujet ?
C’est à la France d’être à l’origine du sursaut, d’ouvrir le débat. A la France de prendre la tête d’un mouvement visant à faire comprendre à tous les Européens que, ce qui se joue, c’est leur socle de valeurs et de principes les plus fondamentaux. Qu’il est urgent de les protéger. Légalement, politiquement, voire financièrement. Cela dépasse largement mon cas particulier. Il s’agit d’une confrontation entre la religion et la raison. Et parce qu’elle a hérité à la fois des Lumières et du système de la laïcité, qu’elle a une histoire et un rayonnement particuliers, la France a un rôle à jouer. C’est le pays de Voltaire ! Le pays de celui qui a dit : je ne suis pas d’accord avec vos idées, mais je suis prêt à mourir pour que vous puissiez les exprimer. J’aime cette idée qu’il importe avant tout de protéger les idées avec lesquelles vous êtes en désaccord, pas seulement celles que vous approuvez !
Au soir de son élection, le président Sarkozy disait “à tous ceux dans le monde qui croient aux valeurs de tolérance, de démocratie et d’humanisme”, que la France serait “à leurs côtés, qu’ils peuvent compter sur elle”…