Asians in France?

Neela Banerjee
November 4, 2005

There were several articles in Bay Area papers recently about Sikh Americans. The first was a blasé piece about Sikhs continuing to be harassed after 9.11. I wasn’t sure exactly what the news hook on this story was, but it had one really gnarly quote that drove the point home for me. Sikhs from the Fremont’s gurdwara traveled to the Gulf Coast to provide Katrina relief and were met with some ignorance: “We asked if they knew who we are,” Ram Singh recalled with a sigh. “Almost everyone said, ‘You're from the Middle East and are here for the oil.’”

There was also a Sikh protest against the French ban on wearing turbans at the French consulate. The French ambassador was in town and Bay Area Sikhs took the opportunity to voice their strong opinions on the issue, which the French see as a part of their traditional upholding of secularism.

This protest made me wonder about whether there are any Asians involved in the riots in France, which are going on 10 days now. Most stories I’ve read focus on the Afro-French population, but the continuing Sikh protests allude to a South Asian population. Has anyone seen anything or know anything about this? A quick search brought me to an interesting article about the Bhangra scene in France. Also, Radikha Jha’s not-so-good novel is about South Asian refugees in France, but I am curious to see reporting regarding other marginalized peoples in France.

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Comments

Comments

JC wrote on Sat, 11/05/2005 - 4:26am
This is a picture of Chinatown in Paris, France.www.terragalleria.com/europe/ france/paris/picture.fran2854.htmlI am sure that some Asian-French participated in the riots.The Souteast Asian population there is quite marginalized. The exoticism of Asians there is pretty bad, however the marriage rate between AF fem and AF male is about that same unlike America.JC
V Krishna wrote on Sat, 11/05/2005 - 7:04am
I don´t think there are any Hindu or sikh rioters among the "scum" that are rioting in Paris. if there are south asian rioter then they are muslims.My comment might upset some people but they are factual. I am British of Indian origin. These riots are reminescent of the Partition of India.The choice was partition or civil war.When 20% of frances population becomes muslims then the french will face the ultimatum partition or civil war. If I was french I would choose deportation of muslims out of love for my country.you should seewww.faithfreedom.org
Neela wrote on Sat, 11/05/2005 - 5:56pm
Um, I would compare what is going on in France more to the numerous riots that have happenned in both England and the United States when marginalized peoples stand up and make some noise about the system of inequality. Your anti-Muslim comments are exactly what the British wanted when they colonized India and utilized their divide-and-conquer tactics. They must be pleased that you are now living in their nation and continuing to believe the lies. God bless the Queen.
Sikh Made wrote on Tue, 11/08/2005 - 4:08pm
V Krishna you got no idea what your talkin about. You probably never faced racism. The French deserve what there getting. Now they know how the minorities feel when they cant get jobs. And get harrased every day because there thought of as terrorists. And it dont matter if you got Indian roots... your British
KXB wrote on Wed, 11/09/2005 - 9:06am
While Krishna's tone may come across as prejudiced, is his observation that the rioters are predominately Muslim inaccurate? No. Given the recent riots in France, the murder of Theo Van Gogh a year ago in Amsterdam, the existence of sleeper cells in Spain and Germany, and the bombing of the London subway - it would be foolhardy to ignore the religious element.Is Islam an inherently violent religion? No, but it is accurate to say it is probably the least tolerant of the world's major religions. Unless there is an Islamic equivalent of a Reformation, we can expect similar outbursts of violence from unassimilated Muslim minorities in Europe. In the U.S., Muslims object to American foreign policy, but because they are better integrated than in Western Europe, they do not resort to violence.