France: On November 10, in Paris, we will say STOP to Islamophobia!

More than fifty personalities call to protest on November 10 in Paris against the stigmatization of the Muslims of France.

For far too long, Muslims in France have been the target of speeches sometimes coming from political "leaders", invective and polemics relayed by certain media, thus contributing to their growing stigmatization.

For years, the dignity of Muslim women has been thrown into disrepute, designated to the vindictiveness of the most racist groups that now occupy the French political and media space, without being measured by the seriousness of the situation.

For years, the acts against them have intensified: whether they are discrimination, repressive projects or laws, physical assaults on women wearing headscarves, attacks on mosques or imams, even the attempt to murder.

The attack on the Bayonne mosque on 28 October is the most recent manifestation of this and the state services know that the terrorist threat against Muslim places of worship is great.

It was necessary for this violence to spring up in the eyes of all, through the humiliation of a mother and her child by a National Rally councillor at the General Council of Burgundy-Franche-Comté, for everyone to realize what associations, academics, personalities, trade unions, activists and beyond, inhabitants, have rightly denounced for years: Islamophobia in France is a reality. Whatever the name is, this is no longer a question of debates of ideas or criticism of religions, but of a form of explicit racism that targets people because of their faith. Today we must unite and give ourselves the means to fight it, so that Muslims will never again be subjected to such treatment.

Since speeches and declarations of intent are no longer enough, because the time is serious: on November 10th in Paris we will walk to say:

• STOP to the racist speeches that pour on our screens all day long, in the general indifference and complicit silence of the state institutions charged with combating racism.
• STOP discrimination against women wearing headscarves, causing them to be phased out from all spheres of society.
• STOP to violence and aggression against Muslims, who gradually find themselves dehumanized and stigmatized, making them potential terrorists or enemies from within.
• STOP to abusive denunciations up to the highest level of the state against Muslims whose only harm would be the real or supposed membership of a religion.
• STOP to mass surveillance devices that lead to the outright criminalization of religious practice.

The consequences, especially for sacked employees and destabilized families, are disastrous and can no longer be tolerated. This criminalization comes at the expense of the fundamental freedoms and the most basic principles of equality that are supposed to guide our country.

We Muslims or not say STOP to Islamophobia and many of us will say it together on November 10th in Paris.

We call on all organisations, all associations, all collectives, all federations of parents of pupils, all political parties, all personalities, all media, all people in solidarity to join this call and to respond to the march on November 10th.

The fundamental freedoms of all are at stake. The dignity and integrity of millions of citizens are at stake. It is a matter of our unity to all, against racism in all its forms, which today once again threatens France.

An appeal initiated by Madjid Messaoudene (municipal councillor  from Saint-Denis), the Collective against Islamophobia in France, the Adama Committee, the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA), the Muslims Platform, the National Union of Students of France (UNEF), The Libertarian Communist Union

First signatories: Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the entire parliamentary group France Insubordinate (LFI); Benoît Hamon and Generations; Esther Benbassa, Senator from Paris European Ecology-The Greens (EE-LV); André Chassaigne, MP, chairman of the Democratic and Republican Left group; Elsa Faucillon, MP Communist Party of France; Olivier Besancenot, NPA; Laura Slimani, municipal councilor from Rouen, National Director of Generations; Leïla Chaibi, MEP LFI; David Cormand, National Secretary of EE-LV; Stéphane Peu, MP PCF; Azzédine Taibi, mayor of Stains PCF; Younous Omarjee, MEP; Manon Aubry, MEP; Philippe Martinez, General Secretary of the CGT; Jerome Rodrigues, Yellow Jacket; Assa Traoré, Adama Committee; Aurélie Trouvé spokeswoman for Attac; Myriam Pougetoux, UNEF; Marwan Muhammad, author and statistician; Caroline De Haas, feminist activist; Nora Hamadi, journalist; Aida Touihri, journalist; Edwy Plenel, journalist; Rokhaya Diallo, journalist and director, Pierre Jacquemain, editor-in-chief of Regards; Taha Bouhafs, journalist; Alain Gresh, journalist; Pouria Amirshahi, editor of Politis; Dominique Vidal, journalist and historian; Eric Fassin, sociologist; Julien Salingue, PhD in Political Science; Etienne Balibar, academic; Sylvie Tissot, sociologist; Ludivine Bantigny, historian; Vincent Geisser, political scientist; Genevieve Garrigos, feminist, human rights activist; Mathilde Larrère, historian; Laurence De Cock, teacher; Arié Alimi, lawyer; Fianso, artist; Mathieu Longatte (Hello Sadness); Vikash Dhorasoo, former football player, Oxfam sponsor and president of Tatane; Unitary Trade Union Federation; Solidarity Trade Union; Anti-fascist action Paris Banlieue (AFA); Michèle Sibony and the French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP); United Front of Immigrant and Working-Class Neighbourhoods (FUIQP).

Read more...