DAR AL HARB - FRANCE: ISLAMIC SCHOOLS IN FRANCE

Koranic schools under DGSE surveillance
Report by Jean Chichizola

The episode illustrates how attentive French intelligence services are to Salafist schools worldwide.

Three days prior to the death of Frenchman Patrick Francoeur-Ravoavy in Yemen, the Koranic school in which he had been studying was the subject of a confidential DGSE [General Directorate for External Security] report entitled "Dar el-Hadith, Koranic Institution for Islamist Radicalization."

This nine-page document points out that Yemen is "a choice destination for young recruits from Europe and especially from France. These young Salafists, who are cut off from all external influences, live in a traditionalist environment governed by the strictest religious rules."
Especially targeted are the 13 centres of the Dar el-Hadith organization, which "constitute centres of radical Islamism that can make it easier for Western youths who have broken links with their countries of origin to swing over to jihadist networks." The report mentions "the deaths in Iraq of two French nationals" that had come out of the same school as Patrick Francoeur-Ravoavy. Upon verification, these deaths (which still have to be confirmed) allegedly date back to 2004-2005.

The centre in Damaj, where Patrick Francoeur-Ravoavy studied, is "Dar el-Hadith's flagship." The centre, located in the northwest part of the country, in an isolated village that can only be reached by a sandy path, has "reportedly had up to 5,000 students in the summer, out of which 1,000 are foreigners."

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From Madagascar to Yemen: The Itinerary of a young French salafist from Trappes shot dead
Report by Jean Chichizola

Patrick Francoeur-Rovaovy fell in the Yemeni sands on 25 March; shot dead by a small Shi'i group that is at war with the school where he was learning Arabic and the Salafist version of the Koran. It is a curious fate for this karate fanatic, who had been pre-selected by the French team for the 2000 European championships; for this Catholic high school graduate. It is also a long way away from Majunga (Madagascar), where he was born on 1 September 1975. He arrived in France at the age of three. He lived with his mother and step-father, a civil servant, in Paris and in Seine-Saint-Denis. He got a vocational high school diploma in micro-electronics and registered to attend university.

His family left the Paris region for the Cote d'Azur and, starting in 1999, Patrick stayed with a friend in Trappes. Friends introduced him to Islam and he had a somewhat crazy plan: learn Arabic, leave for Morocco and establish a karate school there. He left for Saudi Arabia in 2001 and then Yemen, where he got married and had a child. "He was not a radical Islamist, he had nothing to do with all that," his step-father asserts. "We were in contact with him by mail and with the webcam. He had created a cybercafe. He was still thinking about his karate school. He was very well liked: more than 3,000 people came to his funeral." For French intelligence, Patrick was a young Salafist from Trappes known for his austere convictions and his many links to radical sites. His departure in 2001, at a time when he was a monitor at a Versailles high school, was noted. In Yemen, the [intelligence] services considered that he had links to the French radical Islamist community and was in charge of helping students sort out their administrative situations.



Pertinent Links:

1) Koranic schools under DGSE surveillance

2) From Madagascar to Yemen: The Itinerary of a young French salafist from Trappes shot dead