A young Roubaisien, Amine Elbahi, and the presenter Ophélie Meunier find themselves at the heart of a controversy over a report by “Zone Interdite” on Islamism in Roubaix. Threatened with death, they were placed under police protection, a few days after the broadcast of the M6 program. “At 25, it’s not a life to be forced to be placed under police protection, but he is really reassured, explains Amine Elbahi’s lawyer, Jean Tamalet. This report, Sunday January 23, on a flammable subject in the middle of the presidential campaign had provoked strong reactions on social networks and continuous news channels, even reacting to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, at the National Assembly. said bother. I must have aimed correctly in view of the threats,” Amine Elbahi, who played the role of “fixer” for the show, told AFP.
“Roubaix has become the symbol of the failure of the state”
The public law lawyer says in the report that he alerted the Nord prefecture at the end of 2020 to an association in the city, “Ambitions and initiatives for success” (AAIR). This 25-year-old activist suspected her of giving “Koranic lessons” under the guise of tutoring, benefiting from public subsidies, in particular municipal ones. In the background, suspicions of clientelism against the DVD mayor, Guillaume Delbar. The young man filed a complaint on Friday after receiving numerous threats on social networks, by SMS or on WhatsApp, as well as voice recordings “noted by bailiff”, according to his lawyer, Me Jean Tamalet. Amine Elbahi is notably described as “kouffar” (unbeliever in Arabic, editor’s note) and “he is told that he is going to be beheaded”, specifies the lawyer to AFP. Claiming to be the victim of a “surge of hatred and threats”, Mayor Guillaume Delbar announced his intention to file a complaint too.
Amine Elbahi’s alert led to an investigation by the prefecture, which explains that it found that “Arabic lessons of a religious nature” were actually given, then made a report to the prosecution. From now on, Amine Elbahi is taking advantage of the media frenzy around the abrasive subject to make his word heard and list his proposals to “fight against Islamism”. In Le Figaro, the Roubaisien hammers in a column published on Tuesday: “Roubaix, like many territories in France, has become the symbol of the failure of the State, unable to assert its authority.” Whether on the radio or on television sets, the lawyer dressed in a navy blue suit and a white shirt delivers his positions against “communitarianism in Roubaix”. With aplomb, the young man reveals a well-rehearsed speech punctuated with little shocking phrases.
A sister in Syria
Under police protection, Amine Elbahi expressed “his gratitude” to the police who ensure his protection. “I had never received so many threats after a public intervention. I am also surprised today by our ability to move us collectively about a situation that we have known for a long time,” he said again on RTL this Monday. The same day, on the set of C to you, he affirms that a “great majority of Muslims in France respect the laws of the Republic”, but that a “minority takes this religion hostage”. The Roubaisien became known for his fight to repatriate his two nephews aged 4 and 6, detained in a Syrian camp. His sister, mother of two children, had left to join the Islamic State organization and is, according to him, detained in a Kurdish prison.
“From that moment, I noticed the inaction of political leaders. I wanted to go further, so that we do not repeat the same mistakes. We have to be listened to”, confides- he in Marianne. On several occasions, the jurist gets carried away with the elected officials whom he accuses of inaction in the face of radical Islam. His Twitter account – followed by more than 14,000 people – allows us to know more about the character. In his minibiography, he describes himself as the founder of the association Social Fund which defends the rights of recipients of the Caisse d’Allocations Familiales. Coming from a family of six children, Amine Elbahi got involved in politics very early, according to the regional daily The voice of the North. In 2013, the young activist only had eyes for the UMP party and supported Guillaume Delbar’s successful municipal candidacy. The honeymoon with the city councilor does not last long and the young man will play “a role of local scratching hair”, as the saying goes. The voice of the North.
One thing is certain: the M6 broadcast gave a media force to his speech which he had rarely benefited from until then. For his part, the mayor of Roubaix Guillaume Delbar, as well as three members of the association, are summoned on Tuesday before the criminal court of Lille, the first for embezzlement “by negligence”, the others for “breach of trust”. A date set well before the broadcast of the report. “I may have been deceived, I may have been mistaken” by supporting “an association which had just split with a mosque that had become Salafist”, said the city councilor this week. Guillaume Delbar has just been given a six-month suspended prison sentence and two years of ineligibility for his participation in a fraudulent system of tax exemption via micro-parties. He appealed. Contacted by AFP, the Nord prefecture refused to specify the amounts paid by the State to the association since 2016, for which it is requesting reimbursement.