Category Archives: France

French politician harasses veiled Muslim woman … who tells her to get lost

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nadine Morano burqa tweet

French UMP politician Nadine Morano had a shocking experience earlier today when she got off a train at the Gare de l’Est in Paris.

To her horror she came upon a Muslim woman traveller pulling a wheeled suitcase and wearing a niqab. “The woman was fully veiled,” Moran told LOR’Actu. “You could only see her eyes. I find that unacceptable in France. It is a provocation.”

Morano immediately confronted the woman, told her the garment was illegal and instructed her to remove it. To Morano’s indignation, the woman’s simply replied “je m’en fous” and continued on her way.

Having reported her to the police, Morano then took to Twitter and Facebook to proclaim her outrage at this uppity Muslim who had treated her with “total contempt”.

According to Morano, the niqab is a public security issue: “Who is under that outfit? What is in that suitcase … suspicion is permissible when someone is concealed.” She pontificates: “Our vigilance must be unfailing during this period of radicalisation of communalist behaviour, of recruitment to jihad.”

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Muslim school targeted with racist graffiti

Posted on by Bob Pitt

La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin graffitiTrouve Ta Mosquée reports that a Muslim school at La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin in north-central France has been targeted by racists. On Sunday two swastikas and the slogan “sale raton” (“dirty rat”) were found sprayed on the front gate.

The attack immediately followed a decision by the mayor of La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin to order the school’s closure. Trouve Ta Mosquée argues that the mayor’s decision – which would appear to have been unlawful, and motivated by hostility to the Islamic character of the institution – gave the green light to the far right to target the school.

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French supermarket apologises over ‘Islamophobic’ toy machinegun

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Auchan toy gun

French supermarket chain Auchan has apologised after its sales brochure featured a black plastic toy gun, resembling an AK47 assault rifle and featuring a crescent moon and star, symbols that are generally associate with Islam.

Spotted by French news magazine Nouvel Observateur, the toy features on a brochure of cut-price objects available at the stores in later September.

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Dead pig left outside French mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pontarlier mosque desecrationThe mosque at Pontarlier in Franche-Comté in eastern France was subjected to an attack on Monday, when a dead pig was left outside the building.

Le Nouvel Observateur reported that Tahar Belhadj, president of the regional federation of the Great Mosque of Paris, had condemned this deliberate desecration of a place of worship and denounced the “chronic Islamophobia” at work in Franche-Comté.

Mosques in the Franche-Comté capital of Besançon were repeatedly targeted with racist, fascist and Zionist graffiti last year – in February, August and November – and in December a pig’s head and pig’s ears were left outside a mosque.

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Three sentenced over desecration of Mayotte mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mayotte protest against mosque desecration

Last January a pig’s head was left outside a mosque in the French overseas department of Mayotte. This act of desecration caused outrage among a population 95% of whom are Muslim and large demonstrations were held in protest.

Sarah Leduc and her friend Malika Lenormand got drunk at a new year’s eve dinner party and decided it would be fun to deposit a pig’s head outside a mosque, for a bet. Leduc’s partner, police officer Sébastien Milin, drove them to the Labattoir mosque where they left the head just before morning prayer.

The following day a photo of the pig’s head and the comment “the package was delivered” were posted on Facebook. The court was told that the Facebook page, apparently belonging to Leduc, also featured far-right material.

The three have been convicted of “incitement to hatred, violence or discrimination because of religious affiliation”. Leduc and Lenormand were given prison sentences of nine months, six months of which were suspended, while Milin received a six-month suspended prison sentence. In addition they were given two years probation, fined €3,000 each and required to pay €16,000 in compensation to the mosque.

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French Muslim minister wants respect after slurs

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Valeurs actuelles and Minute

France’s new Muslim education minister called for more respect Wednesday after becoming the target of slurs, while a top Socialist politician said a magazine should be convicted of inciting racial hatred for referring to her religion and ethnic background as a “provocation.”

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a 36-year-old rising star in the Socialist Party, said she has been the target of racially-motivated verbal attacks over the last week, including being branded “Ayatollah” by a conservative weekly. “I call for respect,” she told The Associated Press in an email. “And I repeat in particular that racism is not an opinion, but a crime.”

The Morocco-born Vallaud-Belkacem, who doesn’t publicly speak about her religion, is seen as an easy target to attack the unpopular Socialist government led by President Francois Hollande.

She is a young, Muslim woman in a political landscape made up mostly of white, Catholic men. She’s an outspoken defender of gender and racial equality, and supported a divisive law legalizing gay marriage last year. She also intervened in a national debate on the negative impact of halal meat, saying society should stop pointing the finger at Muslims.

One conservative politician referred to Vallaud-Belkacem as a “smiling Vietnamese Communist,” and a fake identity card has appeared on social media falsely claiming she changed her name from Claudine Dupont to a more ethnic-sounding one to get promoted.

A top Socialist Party official threatened legal action against Minute magazine, which in its latest edition calls her religious and ethnic background a “provocation.” The official, Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, said the magazine should be convicted of inciting racial hatred.

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French court bans Muslim with ‘jihadist links’ from nuclear sites

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A French court this week upheld a ban on a Muslim engineer from entering nuclear sites citing his links with Islamist networks, in a move blasted by his lawyer as “Islamophobic”.

The 29-year-old, who works for a subcontractor to French energy giant EDF, had worked freely at nuclear power facilities throughout 2012 and 2013. But in March this year the man, who cannot be named under French law, had his pass to enter the Nogent-sur-Seine nuclear power station revoked.

Officials said he had links with a jihadist terrorist group and that he was in touch with an imam involved in recruiting youngsters to fight in Iraq.

A court in the northeastern town of Châlons-en-Champagne upheld the ban saying the management could prevent those “undergoing a process of political and religious radicalisation” from accessing sensitive sites.

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Row over French MEP’s Muslim veil comments

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nadine Morano tweet

A French MEP and former minister has created a storm in France by posting a picture of a veiled woman sitting on a beach and criticising it as an “attack on our culture”.

Nadine Morano, a close ally of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, took a picture of the woman wearing a headscarf and posted it on her Twitter feed and Facebook page next to a famous photo of sex symbol Brigitte Bardot wearing a bikini.

“When one sees this scene, one cannot but help feel an attack on our culture that goes against our sexual equality,” wrote Morano, from the centre-right UMP party.

“If you choose to come to France, a state of law, a secular state, one should respect our culture and women’s rights. If not, go elsewhere!” said Morano, who is well-known for gaffes and outspoken comments.

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France: Mosque desecrated for second time in a year

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cognac mosque fascist graffitiAccording to AFP, swastikas, Celtic crosses, and slices of ham were found on the walls of the mosque in Cognac on Sunday.

The same source said that the imam of the mosque discovered the misdeeds early Monday morning when the went to the mosque to perform the Fajr prayer, the first prayer of the day.

Abdallah Zekri, President of the National Observatory Against Islamophobia, a component of the French Council of Muslim Faith (CFCM), told AFP that “slices of ham were spread on the steps of the entry and two crosses painted on the walls.” “This is the same group wanted to celebrate the anniversary of the degradation of the mosque last year,” Zekri estimated, confirming that a complaint was filed.

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Muslim engineer banned from French nuclear sites

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim engineer working for a firm subcontracted by French energy giant EDF has been banned from accessing French nuclear sites where he normally works, a move his lawyer says is “pure Islamophobia”.

The 29-year-old project manager had been granted access to nuclear installations as part of his job throughout 2012 and 2013. But in March 2014 the engineer, who cannot be named according to French law, had his pass to enter the Nogent-sur-Seine nuclear power station revoked without explanation.

The decision, made by the local administration, was covered by “Secret Defence” – which means the authorities are not required to publicly justify the decision.

“My client worked freely in French nuclear power stations for three years,” said his lawyer Sefen Guez Guez, who works with France’s Anti-Islamophobia Collective (CCIF), to FRANCE 24. “The question now is what changed? Overnight, he became a suspect person and no one has any idea why. That’s what we’re trying to get to the bottom of.”

As far as the lawyer is concerned, “considering the current atmosphere in France, his religious leanings cannot be ruled out” as a reason behind the ban.

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