Assaults, insults feed growing tension within Europe's large Muslim communities

By MORT ROSENBLUM
AP Special Correspondent

PARIS – On a call to the Grand Mosque in Paris, the simple word, "press," set the switchboard operator off on a diatribe that ebbed into a tearful plea for her children's safety.

Like many of the more than 10 million Muslims living in European Union countries, the woman feared a furious backlash that would even turn on people who condemn terrorism as a travesty to Islam.

"You've done too much bad, the press," she said, before hanging up without giving her name. "People think Muslims are all terrorists. It's very sad what happened there, all those innocent victims, but it's not our fault."

The outburst typified a widening split as many Muslims, blaming television and newspapers for depicting them as dangerous, shy away from explaining their fears to reporters.

Violent assaults on Muslims in several European cities have prompted many Muslims to stay on familiar ground and hope for the best.

"No trouble here," said the proprietor of a small grocery off Boulevard Barbes, an Arab neighborhood in Paris, before scuttling off to avoid further questions.

At the Center for Islam in Ghent, Belgium, Meryem Kanmaz tried to put some sense to a growing polarization that she is afraid could turn bitter.

U.S. television reports kept saying the terrorists in America were "Muslim" without other qualification, she said. "I think this goes too far. We are petrified of repercussions."

Kanmaz, who is Turkish, added, "Muslims are horrified at what happened in the United States."

But not all agree. A small minority are thrilled that Americans have been made to feel loss. Many others are not sure what they think.

Gerard Martinez, a professor at the French Institute of Muslim World Societies, sees conflict in what he calls "shadow zones" about the way Islam condones some violence and makes a duty of defending the faith.

Osama bin Laden – identified as the key suspect in last week's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon – not only represents a small group of fanatic holy warriors, he said, but for many is also a symbol of Islamic pride.

"More than a man, he is a legend, a living myth who excites the interest and even approval of a great part of the Muslim population," Martinez said. "Until the majority isolates such fanatics, Islam cannot credibly condemn them."

Beside the political problem, he said, there is also a religious one. The concept of jihad enjoins believers to fight against anything that is not Muslim. If Islam does not become more tolerant, he said, clashes are inevitable.

On city streets, the grand concepts often cause confusion as well as heat.

In the Netherlands, Islamic leaders condemned the attacks. But Dutch television also showed gleeful young Muslims on scooters carry Bin Laden portraits and anti-American banners through the small town of Ede.

German authorities estimate that about 3,000 out of 3 million Muslim residents are extremists. But community leaders reported threats and insults to Muslim families across Germany.

In Britain, women wearing headscarves were harassed and branded "murderers." London's central mosque was evacuated after a bomb threat, and Britain's first state-funded Islamic school was closed to protect pupils from harassment.

Near Gare du Nord train station in Paris, 20-year-old Aziz Benyamen hung out with friends, a portrait of "les jeunes de banlieues" – kids from suburban slums – in a Brazil soccer shirt, baggy pants and high-top basketball shoes.

Benyamen is French, born in Paris to Moroccan parents. Like his friends, he skips Friday mosque and pays little attention to Islamic ritual. But he describes himself as Muslim. As he talked, a group of pals echoed agreement.

"I'm really against these terrorist acts because terrorism means innocent victims, and that's not our religion," he said. "Terrorists, with their bombs and all, they do that for themselves, not for Islam."

But, Benyamen said, Americans also cause innocent victims by giving weapons to Israel.

"I'll be frank," he said, "if the terrorists didn't kill innocents, I'd be with them 100 percent. If it was just bombing the Pentagon, OK. A terrorist who does that is pure. He fights for his people, for Islam, and he goes to paradise."

These days, Benyamen said, he is afraid of discrimination or assaults. And he is also worried about the future.

"If there is a war, I'll have to fight for my people," Benyamen said, meaning Muslims, not Frenchmen. "Well, I don't know if I will do it. But I should."

The fear level in Europe varies widely. In France, with 4 million Muslims and a long history with North Africa, feelings are complex. Where anti-Arab sentiment exists, it goes deeper than a fear of terrorism.

Abdel Ali Tarille, 45, born in Morocco but French since 1986, is more worried about the stock market and world trade than anti-Arab violence.

"In the market, my French pals kid me, 'So, you learning to fly airplanes?"' he said. "They don't take all Arabs here for terrorists. In America, yes. They mix up everything. It will be community against community."

The worst problem, said Linda Bensaid, a 24-year-old education student with both French and Algerian citizenship, is that the lack of understanding on all sides feeds bitterness.

Many Muslims know little about the Quran or the history of Islam, she said, and the media worsen the situation by making generalizations.

She said zealots like Bin Laden are more concerned with power and economy than religion and culture. "But the drama is that in this context of ignorance, as much historical or religious, it is easy to mislead people."

APNP-09-17-01 1136CDT