Category Archives: France

French rail firm banned black and African workers from station for arrival of Israeli president ‘because they might be Muslim’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SNCF logoBlack and North African railway workers were banned when the President of Israel visited France “because they might be Muslim”, it emerged today.

This was despite Shimon Peres specifically arriving in the country to work towards a Middle East peace agreement between Arabs and Jews.

The alleged discrimination took place when Mr Peres arrived at the Gare du Nord in Paris, the hub for high-speed trains travelling to cities including London, on March 8.

It is now the subject of an official complaint by the SUD-Rail transport union which says everything was done to ensure there were “no Muslim employees to welcome the Head of the State of Israel”.

Continue reading →

Another racist graffiti attack on Le Barp mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt
Le Barp racist graffiti

Fascist graffiti attack on Le Barp mosque last September

The Muslim prayer hall at Le Barp, in Gironde, has once again been the target of an Islamophobic attack. Racist graffiti has been found on the front of the mosque. This is a new slap in the face for the Muslim community in this quiet town of 5,000 inhabitants.

Continue reading →

15-year-old girl expelled from French school for wearing a headband and long skirt which were considered ‘too religious’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A 15-year-old Muslim girl has been expelled from school in France for wearing a headband and long skirt combination which was considered “too religious”, her teachers confirmed today.

Sirine Ben Yahiaten is now set to launch a criminal complaint for discrimination and harassment following her exclusion from the Prunais college in Villiers-sur-Marne, a Paris suburb.

It comes as President Francois Hollande pledges to reinforce the controversial ban on full-face Islamic veils introduced in 2011.

Continue reading →

Islamic headscarf debate rekindled in France

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BBC News reports on the new assault on the rights of French Muslim women following the recent court ruling that the “Baby Loup” creche discriminated against nursery assistant Fatima Afif when they sacked her for refusing to remove her headscarf.

See also “Hijab ruling exposes Islamophobia in French politics—on right and left”, Socialist Worker, 2 April 2013

French ‘Socialist’ government targets hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Because of her choice to wear a headscarf, Samia Kaddour, a Muslim, has all but abandoned trying to land a government job in France. Soon, some private sector jobs could be off limits, too.

French President Francois Hollande says he wants a new law that could extend restrictions on the wearing of prominent religious symbols in state jobs into the private sector. His new tack comes after a top French court ruled in March that a day care operator that gets some state funding unfairly fired a woman in a headscarf, sparking a political backlash.

Continue reading →

‘There is no secularism without freedom’ – CCIF launches petition against Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CCIF Stop Islamophobia

The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France is promoting a petition which condemns the hijacking of the principle of secularism in order to demonise the Muslim community and calls for a parliamentary commission to investigate the rise of Islamophobia in France. “There is no real secularism without freedom”, the petition states. It was published with an initial 40 prominent signatories in Le Monde last week under the headline “Do not stigmatise Muslims!”

Hijab controversy dominates Le Bourget

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UOIF Le Bourget 2013

French Muslim leaders opened on Friday, March 29, the Bourget’s 30th annual gathering in a climate of anxiety resulting from the recent controversy about hijab ruling.

“There is a real sense of unease among us,” Ahmed Jaballah, the president of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF), told Agence France Presse (AFP). “The latest statements on secularism show that there is a drift away,” he added.

Ahmed was referring to the recent controversy which followed a ruling by France’s top court that the dismissal of a Muslim woman from a private nursery school for refusing to remove her hijab amounted to “religious discrimination”.

In an unusual move, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls criticized the ruling against the nursery school as putting “secularism into question”.

Continue reading →