“We are letting 11,000 people train in a separatist environment even though a law in France prohibits it,” denounces a former police officer

“We let 11,000 people train in a separatist environment even though we have a law in France which prohibits it”exclusively denounced Wednesday October 25 on franceinfo Médéric Chapitaux, former gendarme, official of the Ministry of Sports, doctor in sociology, and author of the book When Islamism penetrates sport which appears at Presses Universitaires de France (PUF). 127 sports associations are today identified by the authorities as having a relationship with a separatist movement. Football and combat sports are particularly affected by the phenomenon.

Médéric Chapitaux asks that the 2004 law banning ostentatious religious symbols in national education be extended to the field of sport. “It would allow sports club leaders to have a legal basis on which to rely,” he explains. Today, football clubs are asking “that we provide them with a locker room so they can pray before the match”he cited as an example.

franceinfo: Concretely when you say “Islamism penetrates sport”, what exactly is it about?

Médéric Chapitaux: Islamism is anything that contradicts the rules of sport and the principle of neutrality in the field of sport. It will be permissiveness, that is to say people who will allow themselves to wear the veil, for example, on a sports field. This was today contested in court and the courts ruled in favor of the French government. These will be people who will be in communitarianism. We only get together among co-religionists in a sports club, others are not allowed to come. We are falling into separatism. Finally, radicalization. It depends on the intelligence services who will file people in the Reports File for the prevention of terrorist radicalization, as we have heard since the attack on the Arras professor.

Football and combat sports are particularly affected. Why you think ?

This is not new. We have had the first appearances of this identification since 2010. In 2011, the Council of Europe alerted all European countries to these disciplines. I collected notes from the intelligence services which showed that there was really porosity within these two disciplines. For what ? Because sport is a wonderful space for socialization. We can only rejoice about it. But sometimes there are deviations. We have seen it with sexual violence, we see it with doping and there, we see it with Islamist entryism.

“As football is played by a lot of people, it is a means of recruitment. On the other hand, in combat sports, we are on a utilitarian version, that is to say we want to prepare for combat. “

Médéric Chapitaux, former gendarme, official of the Ministry of Sports

at franceinfo

We have documents from terrorist groups around the world which are published on the web, which explain that it is necessary to go to combat sports clubs to ultimately prepare for jihad.

Boxing clubs in France serve as recruitment sites for jihadists?

Today, we can confirm this for ideological radicalization. An intelligence service official in France said, during a well-documented interview as part of my thesis, that almost all the perpetrators of terrorist attacks in France and Europe had gone through combat sports clubs. But it is relevant since, technically speaking, they are seeking to confront law enforcement. So you might as well do combat sports rather than classical dance.

You say that the principle of prayers before the football match sometimes ends up becoming institutionalized. Do you have any concrete examples?

In championships today, clubs ask, when traveling, that a locker room be made available to them so that they can say prayers before the match. We even have two educators who tell us that today, prayer is completely integrated into pre-match preparation.

Why is it problematic to pray in the locker room before a match?

That’s a real question. It’s not an opposition. This is permissiveness. At what point do we leave the republican framework? It is a space of neutrality. The locker room is part of the game. A football referee has the right to give a yellow or red card in the locker room for various comments. It’s in the space of the game. And in the space of the game, we don’t pray. As soon as we start to say a collective prayer, it can raise questions. I come from combat sports. If we have to pray before getting into the ring because we need it, we’re not going to ban it. It’s normal. You put your body on the line, you put a lot of things on the line. Some educators tell us that religion is part of sports performance and that should be understood. This does not mean that everyone who says a prayer will become terrorists tomorrow. That’s absolutely not the point. It’s saying: ‘be careful, there is a graduation’. You must be able to identify these graduations. In the vast majority of cases, things go very well. What do we do when things aren’t going well? This is where we must intervene and this is where there is perhaps a subject for discussion.

127 sports associations are today identified as having a relationship with a separatist movement. Compared to the 360,000 structures declared, ultimately this is not a massive phenomenon. Should it be made into a book?

This is a very good remark. These are the government figures. We can only rejoice that this represents 0.07% of sports associations. When we say it like that, I agree with you, there is no need to make a book about it. But if I tell you that if we bring this figure into real value, that represents 11,000 people who are allowed to train in a separatist environment even though we have a law in France which prohibits it. The separatism law (2021) is written, now it must be applied.

The 2004 National Education law prohibits ostentatious religious symbols. Should it be applied in sport?

I am for educational and republican coherence. We cannot say that sport is a vector of education if we do not apply the same directives and the same instructions as the Ministry of National Education. Technically speaking, a 2004 law extended to sports services would allow sports club managers to have a legal basis on which to move forward. Second element which is essential for me: imagine that today sports educators can be listed at the highest level and be face-to-face educational with our children since radicalization is not illegal.

Is it the supervisors who are proselytizing?

Of course. Imagine a sports instructor who will be spotted by intelligence. It will be filed in the morning in a departmental evaluation group (Territorial system for the prevention of radicalization) in a meeting with a department prefect. Anything more normal happens every day. He is therefore on file with intelligence. At 2 p.m., this same educator obtained his state diploma as a sports instructor, in football for example. While he is registered, in the afternoon, the same prefect will be able to issue him a blue white red card to be a sports instructor in all places since he cannot be prohibited from practicing. There is a dichotomy that borders on absurdity. It is imperative to restore a little educational coherence to all of this.