Islamic threat to French business?

Wake up, sleepy heads. The jihad is coming to a company near you.

PARIS -- The influence of radical Islamist groups is a growing threat to French business, a leading intelligence expert warned on Tuesday, citing the discovery of secret prayer-rooms at the Disneyland theme-park outside Paris.

In a report commissioned by several retail and courier companies, Eric Denece - director of the French Center for Research and Intelligence - said that the Islamists' strategy is to "take control of Muslims within the workforce" and then "challenge the rules in order to impose Islamic values.

"For example, around 10 prayer-rooms have been discovered at EuroDisney," he said.

The claim was originally made in a report by the police intelligence service RG in mid-2004.

How well is the strategy working? Only too well.

Denece also quoted the head of a freight company employing 3,000 people at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris who complained to the RG of "the presence of a small group of Muslims bent on imposing their work methods under the threat of repeated strikes".

"The growth in power of radical Islamism is a new menace, which can threaten the integrity of a business," Denece said.

Supermarkets and other large stores are a prime target, according to the 30-page report.

"Hypermarkets have noted that employees who are heavily involved in proselytizing systematically seek out jobs as telephone operators, delivery-men, cashiers and security officers - positions which allow easy exchanges of information, money and goods," the report said.

Muslim women working at supermarket cash registers are also being placed under pressure to wear the headscarf, it said.

According to Denece, the primary threat of Islamism to business is "sectarian", because it can undermine the loyalty of employees and destroy morale. It should therefore be "treated in the same way as the threat from scientology and other sects", he advised.

Finally, there is this chilling paragraph:

Last month an RG report to the French government said that Islamic militants are moving away from mosques that they know are now under close surveillance, and are congregating in secret prayer-rooms - often attached to businesses.

There's your religion of peace for you.