________________________________

Un lecteur nous expédie cet excellent article du Guardian qui a mené une enquête discrète et nuancée à Molenbeek, où les habitants continuent à subir le poids d’un “collective punishment” lié aux attentats. “All of us have been portrayed as terrorist monsters and stigmatised by politicians and the media. II fully accept that we have problems but there is good and bad in every community. After the Paris attack I was asked every day by journalists if I had gone to Syria. People think we are all members of the Islamic State”.

Azmani Ridoin – un ingénieur de 46 ans – pense aussi que les 10 équipes de foot de l’Académie Jeunesse Molenbeek constituent la meilleure réponse pour faire de cette commune un lieu de vie convivial. “All players are instructed to shake hands with opponents before and after games, last season it was voted the friendliest club. Virtually all its players are Muslim and live locally”.
Le fondateur du club – OmarTizguine – ajoute: “Our priority is not football but discipline and keeping children off the street. Many boys in Molenbeek are poorly educated and unemployed: they get into bad company and this makes them vulnerable”.

Les subsides locaux ne couvrent qu’un quart des frais de gestion du club et les dirigeants puisent dans leur poche pour le garder à flot. Un soutien de la Cruyff Foundation est annoncé et bienvenu, as they battle to get Molenbeek back on its feet and restore its reputation in the eyes of the world, they have vowed not to turn any boy away.