Since an investigation by the Prefecture of the North in autumn 2019, the Roubaix association has been in turmoil. It is accused of proselytising and diverting public funds for religious purposes. An accusation that the municipality of Roubaix doubts, but which La Voix du Nord’s exposure seems to confirm.
The name of the association could well be misleading. “Ambitions and Initiatives for Success” was founded in 2007 and claims to “promote the education and emancipation of women and girls in the neighbourhoods around the association’s headquarters; develop school follow-up to alleviate the problems of school failure; provide aftercare and support for people seeking work” and other community service actions. An ambitious and, by any standards, respectable programme … that runs into trouble with an investigation launched by the North’s prefecture in autumn 2019.According to the prefectural services, the association would misrepresent Islamic courses as Arabic courses, all financed by generous public subsidies. In 2020, La Voix du Nord recalls, the association actually received 80,000 euros in subsidies, coming all at once from the state, the Hauts-de-France region, the Nord department and the city of Roubaix.
Despite the prefecture’s revelations, City Hall turns a deaf ear and persistently doubts the accusations. A doubt that La Voix du Nord aims to dispel by publishing new evidence this Friday, July 9, which is unpleasant to say the least. The daily has been given extracts from the correspondence book of a pupil of the association, provided by his father. The latter mentions religious instruction very clearly: for example, we learn that in October 2019 the young pupil had to “memorise Sura Al Fatiha and learn the supplications in class”. A few weeks later, in December, it is “all the suras with the invocations” that have to be worked on. The following summer it was another surah, “El Massad”, whose learning was recorded in the young student’s notebook. La Voix du Nord also got the books that the students use to learn Arabic. They contain instructions for Islamic prayers and ablutions. In the illustrations, all the women and the vast majority of the girls are shown veiled.
La Voix du Nord states that it passed this information on to the Lille criminal investigation department, which led to a search of the premises of ” Ambitions and Initiatives for Success” in May 2021. The Nord daily informs that this on-site visit by the police brought to light “interesting information” in the context of the prefecture’s investigation launched in autumn 2019. For his part, the association’s president, Nordine Khabzaoui, formally denies the allegations. “We are not an Islamic association at all,” he affirms to La Voix du Nord. The continuation of the investigation should clarify the last ambiguities in the affair and perhaps also change the mind of the Roubaix city council.