Algerian immigrant appreciates the irony of his actions Bruce Wallace National Post http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=3D5F7BF5-11BE-437A-893A-0F9D3BC1B3EC Tuesday, July 16, 2002 An Algerian-born Muslim who is now a naturalized Canadian says it is "ironic and symbolic" that his spontaneous act helped prevent a white neo-Nazi French national from murdering Jacques Chirac, the French President. "When it happened, I did what I did just because it was the right thing to do," said Mohamed Chelali, a 45-year-old science teacher from Ocean Park, B.C., who was part of a trio of men who grabbed and restrained alleged gunman Maxime Brunerie on the Champs Élysées on Sunday. "But after, when I heard about this person, how he had a history of being a neo-Nazi, I thought a lot about the symbolism of me, someone who was once an immigrant here, intervening to save the President." Like so many Western European countries, France is in political turmoil about how to handle a swell of Muslim immigration and the accompanying social tensions that oxygenate anti-immigrant extremist groups. The issue defined France's recent presidential election in which Chirac crushed a surprising challenge from Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front and its anti-foreigner, anti-Muslim message. Given that so many white French citizens blame their rising crime rate and diminished sense of security on Muslims in their midst, Chelali said he could not help but note the irony of an Algerian Muslim stepping into the hero's role. "We were talking this morning and my dad told me that it was really symbolic how it happened -- he being Algerian, since some people consider us terrorists since Sept. 11," said Chelali's 15-year-old son, Tarik. Chelali did not have a lot of free time for reflection yesterday. In addition to fielding a call of gratitude from Chirac, he spent the day recounting for the world's media the three-minute sequence of action during the annual Bastille Day parade. On Sunday morning, as Chirac finished circling the Arc de Triomphe while standing in an open-topped jeep, Chelali -- who was in France as part of a long summer holiday with his two children and a young family friend -- was alerted by a commotion beside him. Brunerie, a 25-year-old student with what police say are documented connections to French extremist groups and skinheads, allegedly pulled a .22-calibre rifle from a guitar case and fired two shots at the French President. The shots missed because another bystander had deflected the rifle barrel skyward. Chelali pounced on the gun as well. "You don't know what's happening," he recalled yesterday. "I never even heard the shots." But the Chelali family's recounting of the assassination attempt makes it clear that the gunman was much closer to Mr. Chirac than French security officials at first admitted. The initial official account put the shooter at least 150 metres from the President. "No way," said Tarik Chelali. "He was 30 metres away from us when this all happened. Maximum." Police also appeared keen on portraying Brunerie as a lone, probably crazed gunman, suggesting he was emotionally unstable and remanding him for a psychiatric evaluation. But it also emerged that Brunerie had contested municipal elections in a Paris district last year as a candidate for a far right party that professes to be fully democratic. He won 2.9 per cent of the vote as a candidate for the National Republican Movement (MNR), an offshoot of Le Pen's National Front. Police also said Brunerie had issued a veiled warning of coming carnage on what they called an "English-language Web site." The message told people to be sure to watch their televisions on Sunday, although it was not specific about any threat to Chirac. Chelali believes his act, while clearly a case of quick thinking and bravery, does assume a political connotation. Born in Algeria, he emigrated to France as a young adult. He moved frequently over the years, according to an autobiographical sketch posted on a community Web site, becoming, as he put it, "a vagabond of modern times." He worked in Algeria again, spent time in Saudi Arabia and Belgium, and ran an import-export business in France. But he said he finally left France for Canada in 1992, in part because of the discrimination he felt as an Algerian and a Muslim. "There are good people and bad people everywhere," he said yesterday. "And France is a country of human rights. But sometimes ... well, I was treated like other people from North Africa are treated here, and I'm very happy we went to Canada." © Copyright 2002 National Post |