Muslim group issues Fatwa against riot

Firefighters extinguish a fire at a kindergarten yesterday in Lille, north France. Police said Monday that 1,408 vehicles were torched and 395 arrests were made during rioting across France overnight -- the highest figures recorded since the troubles broke out on October 27.. PHOTO: AFP

"It is strictly forbidden for any Muslim ... to take part in any action that strikes blindly at private or public property or that could threaten the lives of others," the Fatwa said.

"To contribute to these exactions is an illicit act," said the declaration by the Union of Islamic Organisations in France (UOIF).

"Every Muslim living in France, whether a French citizen or a guest of France, has the right to demand deep respect for his person, his dignity and his convictions and to strive for more equality and social justice.

"But this action, whether taken in a concerted or spontaneous way, must in no way contradict (Muslim) teaching or the laws governing communal life."

Calling for a speedy return to calm, the UOIF said the events of the past 11 nights -- in which thousands of cars have been torched in the poor suburbs of dozens of French cities -- "seems to lay bare the serious defects of the French model of interaction that clearly throws dozens of young people in difficult neighbourhoods into despair and poverty."

The UOIF appealed to the French political class and government "to evaluate the seriousness and danger of the situation."

The group called for a national dialogue on poor suburbs and disadvantaged youths "to launch a struggle, a declared 'national cause,' for equal opportunity and the social, political