France
Pork or nothing: how school dinners are dividing France
When Aïcha Tabbakhe, a French nurse, went to fill out the forms for her children’s school dinners in her small town outside Paris, she was puzzled. The box she would usually tick to say that her Muslim children didn’t eat pork wasn’t there. “Confused, I called the town hall and I was bluntly told: ‘From…
Salim Benghalem: target of strikes in Raqqa
A week following the announcement by defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian of air strikes during the night of October 8-9 of an Islamic State camp near Raqqa, the official account remains under scrutiny. According to defense minister, the training camp was considered a threat to France and Europe and housed “foreign fighters, many of who…
Syria: France strikes Islamic State for second time
France carried out two air strikes against the Islamic State in Raqqa October 8-9, announced defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. “Two Rafale jets bombed a training camp. The objectives were met,” he declared on Europe 1, stating that the strikes would continue. “We struck because we know that in Syria, in particular around Raqqa, there…
Imam of Vigneux defends ‘Twenty-first century Islam’
Mohamed Bajrafil, imam of the Vigneux and Ivry-sur-Seine mosques, presents himself as the defender of a liberal and tolerant 21st century Islam. His recently published book Islam of France, Year I, “reestablished” several “truths” about his religion, and dismissed extremism. “One cannot read the Qur’an today through a 1400 year old lens,” he argued. In…
France starts anti-jihadi ad campaign to counter Islamic State
A new French government ad campaign features mourning families to discourage young people from joining extremists in Syria – an attempt at a counter-narrative against an Islamic State publicity machine that churns out huge amounts of propaganda. More than 500 people have left France to join Islamic State and other jihadi groups in the war…