French Leftist Leader Mélenchon Condemns Islamophobia, Citing Personal Experience

Jean-Luc Mélenchon draws on his experience with Muslims to call for an end to their stigmatization: "It’s terrible what we see, this hatred of Muslims, this stigmatization of a religion, these endless shows against them (...) You see, I have the advantage of having lived a large part of my life among Muslims. Both when I was a boy in Morocco, and later in the cities where I lived, and even today in the neighborhood where I live in Paris or in Marseille quite frequently," he denounces.

He continues, "I have never felt the danger that some believe they feel when seeing Muslims. And I look at all this with the gaze of someone who loves France and knows that it has no possible destiny in a division of religious war."

He goes back in time with the history of the Jews persecuted and expelled from France on several occasions. As well as he mentions the persecution of Protestants by King Louis XIV, to ask: "What good did all this do, except to create unhappiness, division?"

He does not deny either that there are forms of religious practices that seem shocking, but "we must take it upon ourselves," he affirmed, before concluding that "99.9% of Muslims, like 99.9% of Jews, ask to be left alone, that they can practice their religion in the secrecy of their hearts."