December 10, 2003	Wednesday	Shawwal 15, 1424

PARIS, Dec 9: In the first manifestation of a new political trend that its proponents say threatens to become a major political tool for the country’s five million Muslims, three leading groups representing the interests of the country’s Islamic population have issued statements asking their fellow Muslims to engage in a “democratic intifada.”

One of their first tracts, issued to coincide with the end of Ramazan, exhorts French Muslims to “block the racists” and do so “in all future elections.”

The three groups are the Union des associations musulmanes du 93, the Association des Musulmans d’Aubervilliers, and the Collectif contre l’Islamophobie.

According to a tract just released jointly by the three groups, the region’s Muslim electors are being asked to vote against a prominent rightwing MP, Eric Raoult, who is a member of the ruling UMP (Union pour un mouvement populaire) political party that supports President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and who will be running early next year as part of a UMP list during regional elections.

Mr Raoult, who is also the mayor of Le Raincy, as well as vice president of the National Assembly, is considered by the three associations as being “Islamophobic” with the three associations saying they would like to see MP Raoult become the first objective of their “democratic intifada.”