Several thousand demonstrators paraded Sunday in Paris at the call of several organizations and personalities to denounce “the progression of Islamophobia in France” and pay tribute to Aboubakar Cissé, a young Malian killed in a mosque in the south of France.
“Racism is starting with words and it ends like Aboubakar”, proclaims a visible sign in the procession where many representatives of rebellious France (radical left), including his leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the deputies Louis Boyard or Eric Coquerel, noted an AFP journalist.
In the midst of French and Palestinian flags, the demonstrators chant “no, no to Islamophobia”, with several slogans and signs targeting the Minister of the Interior: “Even if Retailleau does not want, we are there”.
Anti -racist organizations have called to parade in the capital and elsewhere in France – there were 400 in Lille (North) – to denounce “the progression of Islamophobia” and greet the memory of Aboubakar Cissé.
Targeted
Éric Coquerel deplored an “increase in Islamophobia in an undeniable manner, until the death of Aboubakar Cisse in a mosque”. “We will never say enough the responsibility of the Minister Retailleau who merges right and extreme right,” he said.
The first three months of the year recorded an increase in anti -Muslim acts of 72% compared to the period in 2024 with 79 cases identified, according to the counting of the Ministry of the Interior.
Yassine Benyettou, national secretary of the Red Jeunes collective and co -organizer of the march, deplored this week “a constant fear” growing in the Muslim community, believing that the “uninhibited speech” of part of the political class fuels an anti -Muslim climate and “undermines the security of part of the French population”.
The murder of Aboubakar Cissé rekindled a debate around the very term of “Islamophobia” in France.
Bruno Retailleau, whose attitude in this case was criticized on the left and by relatives of the victim, estimated that “there is an ideological connotation of the term + Islamophobia + very marked vis-à-vis the Muslim Brotherhood, who means that in our ministry, we take the precaution of not using it”.
Prime Minister François Bayrou, on the contrary, defended the employment of the term “Islamophobic” in this case.
This debate found an echo in the procession on Sunday with this sign brandished by a demonstrator Place de la Bastille: “They are not Islamophobic, it’s just that they do not like Muslims”.
