# The Dirty Truth Behind Paris’ River Seine

**Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman
**Series:** Explained
**Published:** 2024-08-20
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/8XU0L1pqADQ
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/explained/the-dirty-truth-behind-paris-river-seine
**Topics:** History, Islam in the West, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice

## Description
As the Olympics wrap up, news articles start to surface about the pollution of the River Seine in Paris, where open water swimming events took place. Beneath these reports lies a more unsettling story, one that slowly uncovers the river’s dark past. As we delve deeper, we are led back to the...

## Summary
This video draws a connecting line between the modern-day image of Paris's River Seine—used as a photo-op by Mayor Anne Hidalgo to promote Olympic swimming events—and its hidden history of colonial violence against Algerians. The French occupation of Algeria began with the 1830 invasion, leading to 130 years of colonial repression, land confiscation, cultural suppression, and restrictions on Islamic practice. This culminated in the Algerian War of Independence, and on October 5th, 1961, a curfew was imposed specifically on Algerian Muslims in Paris. In response, 30,000-40,000 Algerians peacefully marched on October 17th, 1961, but French police responded with brutal violence, killing between 200 and 300 people and throwing many of their bodies into the Seine, while officially reporting only three deaths. The French government censored the news and destroyed archives, and it wasn't until 2012—51 years later—that a French president even acknowledged the massacre. No one has ever been prosecuted due to a general amnesty for crimes committed during the war, meaning the exact death toll will never be known. The video draws parallels between this history of colonization, repression, and unpunished massacre with the ongoing situation in Palestine and Gaza, questioning whether justice will ever be achieved for over 186,000 Palestinian victims. It concludes with a reminder that while true justice may not be found in this worldly life, Allah is Al-Adl (the Most Just), and Muslims are commanded to resist injustice with their hands, tongues, and hearts, emphasizing that the struggle for justice continues indefinitely as long as injustice exists.

## Key Takeaways
- On October 17, 1961, French police killed and threw between 200 and 300 Algerians into the Seine during a peaceful Paris demonstration against a curfew targeting Algerian Muslims, arresting around 12,000 — yet the official report acknowledged only three deaths. France censored the news, destroyed archives, and did not acknowledge the massacre until 2012, and no one has ever been prosecuted, the killings falling under a general amnesty for crimes committed during the Algerian War.
- The massacre sits within the broader brutality of French colonial rule in Algeria, which began with the 1830 invasion and brought mass arrests, public executions, land confiscation handed to European settlers, and the suppression of local culture and Islamic practice, a pattern of repression whose repercussions remain embedded in Algerian society today.
- The same colonial logic of dispossession, settler colonialism, and the suppression of culture, language, and religion recurs in Palestine, raising the question of whether worldly justice will ever account for such crimes. True justice may elude victims in this life, but Allah is al-ʿAdl, the Most Just, and the obligation to resist injustice with hand, tongue, and heart has no expiration date.

## Transcript
**[0:00]** The murdered bodies of hundreds of Algerian Muslims were once thrown into this river by the French police. And recently, the mayor of Paris is using it for a photo-op. Anne Hidalgo took a swim in the river Seine to prove the waters are clean enough to host open swimming events during the Olympic Games.

**[0:16]** But as the Olympics wrapped up, stories about the pollution of the river hit the news. It's ironic, because it's not just pollution that dirties the river, it's blood. The blood of Algerians. The French occupation of Algeria began with the 1830 invasion, initiating a brutal colonial period.

**[0:35]** Uprisings were met with severe repression, mass arrests and public executions. Large areas of fertile land were confiscated from Algerian farmers and given to European settlers, causing widespread dispossession and poverty. The French also suppressed Algerian culture, language and religion, replacing Arabic with French in official settings and restricting Islamic practices.

**[0:56]** 130 years later, the 1960s saw the climax of the Algerian War of Independence. This violent conflict began in 1954 between the National Liberation Front, the FLN, a nationalist political party in Algeria, and French colonial forces.

**[1:11]** On October 5th, 1961, the French Prefecture of Police imposed a curfew for Algerian Muslim workers, French Muslims and French Muslims of Algeria, in response to state-targeted violence from the FLN. Thousands of the Algerians who live in Paris, men, women and children, will stage their largest demonstration yet against police restrictions.

**[1:31]** In response, 30,000 to 40,000 Algerians peacefully marched towards Paris on the evening of October 17th, 1961, to protest the curfew, but the demonstration turned into a massacre. That night, French police beat, killed and threw between 200 and 300 Algerians into the Seine, the river that runs through the centre of Paris, and arrested about 12,000 Algerians in the crackdown.

**[1:52]** Yet, the official report the next day mentioned only three deaths. We demand the recognition of this crime, and we demand the recognition of the crimes of French colonialism committed in Algeria for 130 years.

**[2:09]** The colonisation, the hate crimes, the massacres committed against Algerians. The French government censored the news, destroyed archives and blocked journalists from investigating the incident. It wasn't until 2012, 51 years later, that French president even acknowledged that this tragedy had happened.

**[2:29]** As the world watches the Olympics, or other events in France, do we remember the history of the Seine? The swimming may seem unrelated, but it connects to a deeper historical wound that remains unhealed.

**[2:53]** To this day, no one has been prosecuted for the killings, as they fell under the General Amnesty for Crimes Committed during the Algerian War. Today, we observe Algeria as an independent nation, free from France's persecution of Muslims, but the repercussions of colonial crime are still embedded deep inside Algerian society.

**[3:22]** The number of dead bodies, either in the Seine, or in the woods of Vincennes, or in the woods of Boulogne, or in the prefecture of police, or in the identification centers, that's why we'll never know the exact number.

**[3:38]** We'll never know the exact number. Colonisation, heinous crimes and massacres. Does this sound familiar? Repression, mass arrests, land confiscation, settler colonialism, dispossession, suppressing culture and language, restricting Islamic practices.

**[3:58]** The overbearing injustice is something we're seeing today in Palestine, and it raises the question, how many in Gaza will never see justice? Perhaps we won't live to witness this, and even if the idea falls, would that be enough to account for the genocide of over 186,000 Palestinian men, women and children?

**[4:21]** You see, true justice may elude us in this world, but Allah is Al-Adl, the Most Just, and He commands us to resist injustice with everything that we have, our hands, tongues and hearts. Those whose blood spilled in the waters of the Seine and in the streets of Gaza remind us exactly what we strive for, justice in this life and in the next.

**[4:44]** 132 years and counting for Algeria, 76 years and counting since the Nakba, the struggle for justice has no expiration date, and as long as injustice exists, we will resist.

**[5:04]** And if it is the weight of a grain of mustard, We will bring it, and We are sufficient to account for it.

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