Alarming Surge in Anti-Muslim Discrimination Threatens French Unity

According to this study published on Monday, September 15, "Muslimophobia" has become a "widespread phenomenon" in France. The figures speak for themselves: 66% of French Muslims say they have been victims of racist behavior in the past five years, compared to 20% of the French population as a whole. "In one case out of two, it is religion that is identified as the main cause. These discriminations manifest themselves in all the decisive spaces of collective life: employment, housing, school, police, public services," explains the Grand Mosque of Paris. In detail, 51% of respondents say they have been victims of discrimination in hiring at least once because of their religion, while 46% have been so in their search for housing.

The Grand Mosque of Paris calls for "a surge against Muslimophobia," a "reality that can no longer be avoided or minimized" and which "undermines the very foundations of our republican pact." "The fight against Muslimophobia is not a community demand," but "an issue of national security and republican cohesion," insists the institution led by Rector Chems-Eddine Hafiz, who invites every French citizen "to seize this reality, with courage and responsibility," because "we cannot build the future of France by allowing the exclusion of a part of its citizens."

The Grand Mosque of Paris emphasizes the urgent need for the State, political leaders and public actors to "engage in an ambitious and concrete national plan" with "control and sanction measures in employment, housing and public services," "strengthened training for state agents and business leaders," as well as a "clear and continuous policy of republican equality." It should be noted that the publication of this study comes a few days after the case of pig heads found in front of Parisian and Île-de-France mosques. Voices had been raised to call on the authorities to make the fight against anti-Muslim racism "a major national cause" and to "urgently mobilize the human and financial resources to eradicate this scourge."