A review of the major development in initiatives against racial profiling in European policing. Black and Asian kids from poor neighbourhoods repeatedly stopped and searched by police in the UK, identity card checks on people of Muslim appearance in central Paris, or of Muslims outside mosques in Germany, round-ups of migrants without papers in Greece,
Geography: France
Shooting rampage in Front National (FN) heartland
A Facebook campaign was set up denouncing the prosecution of a French couple motivated by anti-Arab racism. On the night of 4-5 August, in the small town of Aigues-Mortes, Gard, William Vidal, a fireman, and his wife Monique Guindon were driving slowly past a group of young people of north African origin chatting in front
Ali Aarrass appeal heard
European delegation goes to Ali Aarass hearing in Morocco. On 24 September, IRR executive director, Liz Fekete and vice-chair Frances Webber joined an international delegation of lawyers, scholars, human rights activists, journalists and filmmakers at the Appeal Court at Rabat-Salé to hear the long-awaited appeal of the dual Belgian-Moroccan national Ali Aarrass on terrorism charges.
Justice for Nouredine Rachedi
The victim of a vicious Islamophobic attack awaits the verdict of a Versailles appeal court after his alleged attackers, one a known violent racist, were acquitted. Nouredine Rachedi and his supporters in the campaign group Justice for Nouredine were in court on 12 June and now anxiously await the verdict. The case concerns the acquittal
Sarkozy’s racist legacy
Graham Murray reports on the ‘normalisation’ of extreme Right politics in France. The defeat of Nicolas Sarkozy on 6 May 2012 should be celebrated as a victory against Islamophobia and racism. No other French presidential candidate from ‘mainstream’ politics tapped into the ideology of the far Right to the extent that Sarkozy did. In an
Change the climate of hatred
A statement on the murders in Toulouse and Montauban from the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF). A murderer has struck down seven people in cold blood, in an organised, premeditated way: three soldiers, two of them Muslims, and a Jewish father and three children, shot at point-blank range. While their families mourn the dead,
Background to the French commission on the burqa and niqab
As Belgium and France move to ban the burqa, the IRR European Race Audit (ERA) publishes today a briefing paper on ‘The background to the French parliamentary commission on the burqa and niqab’. It examines how André Gerin, the Communist Party mayor of Vénissieux, ignited the debate on the voile intégral in a country where,
How the extreme Right hijacks direct democracy
The IRR European Race Audit (ERA) publishes today two briefing papers on the Swiss referendum against minarets and the ways in which direct democracy can be hijacked by the extreme Right. On 29 November 2009, Switzerland became the first country in Europe to vote to curb the religious practices of Muslims when a referendum, banning
No glory days for immigrant elders in France
An interview with Boualem Azahoum, an activist with DiverCités and El Ghorba in Lyon. At the Social Forum of the Banlieues (FSQP) at Nanterre, Paris, in October 2008, Naima Bouteldja interviewed Boualem Azahoum, a long-standing activist living in Lyon and a member of DiverCités, a local organisation campaigning on issues such as racism, discrimination, policing,
Speaking for the youth of the banlieues
An interview with Abdul Zahiri, an activist with ACJ REV in Avignon. At the Social Forum of the Banlieues (FSQP) at Nanterre, Paris, in October 2008, Naima Bouteldja interviewed Abdel Zahiri, 28, an activist living in a banlieue populated by 20,000 people, in Avignon (southeast France). He is a member of AJC REV, a local