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4:16pm September 17, 2014

clatterbane:

aquilastyle:

Racism in France: Attacks on French Morocco-born minister spark debate

“Provocation”, “a Moroccan Muslim”, “an Ayatollah”: the appointment of a young Morocco-born woman as France’s education minister has sparked a wave of attacks that has renewed concerns about racism in the country.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem is one of the brightest lights in President Francois Hollande’s deeply unpopular government.

The 36-year-old telegenic Hollande protegee was appointed last month as the country’s first-ever female education minister, the latest step in a prodigious political career.

But her appointment was greeted with a volley of complaints from the far-right, with its weekly mouthpiece Minute describing the appointment of “a Moroccan Muslim” as a “provocation”.

Another right-wing publication, Valeurs Actuelles, described her as the new “Ayatollah” at the education ministry.

And the latest controversy: over the weekend, a false letter circulated on Twitter, purportedly from the minister, encouraging town halls to introduce an hour of Arabic-language class in schools.

No racism in Europe, not at all. (Or misogyny, for that matter.)

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