CAGE International Presents on Foundations of French Islamophobia at Sarajevo Conference

Sarajevo/Srebrenica - CAGE International participated in the 3rd annual conference on Islamophobia organized by the International Islamophobia Studies and Research. Our researcher Rayan Freschi presented a paper describing the consequences of the 1998 “Chalabi Trial”. It followed a state-led crackdown on supporters of the Islamic political movement in Algeria. 138 Muslim men were charged under the so-called “anti-terror” legislation, which enabled a wide range of punitive measures and rule of law violations.

This included a cumulative 33 years of abusive pre-trial detention for the men, which included solitary confinement, and lack of access to lawyers during the trial. The trial itself was staged in a penitentiary gymnasium, mirroring the judicial theatrics of dictatorships. This war on terror-like experience, predating the US-led war on terror, demonstrated the early role France played in developing the infrastructure that targets Muslims’ political expression and dissent. 

CAGE International then visited the Srebrenica memorial to recall the genocide of more than 8 thousand Bosnian Muslims in July 1995. This massacre is a vivid testament to the harmful and deadly consequences of Islamophobia. Keeping this memory alive, led by survivors, continues to inspire resistance to the global forces that perpetuate Islamophobic violence and hatred. As a genocide is currently unfolding in Palestine, these patterns appear as relevant today as they were in the recent past.