Bursts of laughter escape from the social and cultural center of Neuhof, in Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin). Around a table in the establishment, placed in the middle of the bars of buildings in this working-class district, a few young social workers linger on the application “Quickly my first name”. A digital gadget born after a recent exit of the “almost candidate” for the presidential election Eric Zemmour. Nostalgic for a 1803 law, he hoped that in France, parents would opt for “French first names”, in its terms.
A few million Internet users have already tried it, including Achraf, 18, one of the young people from the neighborhood: “Apparently my name must be Achilles”, he laughs in front of his friends. Buthe laughter quickly gives way to bewilderment.
/2021/10/27/phpxHz1SC.jpg)
The teenager says he discovered Eric Zemmour’s ideas through social networks, in short extracts from his television appearances. The far-right essayist, sentenced in May 2018 for comments anti-muslims held in 2016, multiplies the outings around the place of Islam in France. A subject that feeds the debates, even if voters are more concerned about purchasing power, according to a recent Elabe poll for BFMTV.
Five months before the ballot, franceinfo went to Strasbourg, where the specific Concordat regime applies, to give the floor to the main stakeholders, like Ousmane. In his office in the Neuhof district, this professional integration adviser leaves the door open, between two meetings. He there isall day long welcomes the youth of the neighborhood who express their aspirations. After the controversy over first names, he deplores seeing some abandon their dreams for fear that their surname is an insurmountable obstacle.
“When we tell young people that their name is not French, that they are different from others, that they are assigned to their origins, it is stigmatizing.”
Ousmane, professional integration officer at the Neuhof social centerfranceinfo
And then there are the controversies specific to working-class neighborhoods. “If we are not talking about Muslims, we are talking about the suburbs. When the extreme right talks about the ‘lost territories of the Republic’, it only accentuates the weight of discrimination, which already weighs on young people here “, Judge Ousmane.
/2021/10/28/phpFMnpqa.jpg)
Upstairs, Jamila tells about her childhood in Strasbourg in Achraf: “Our parents, from the first generation [immigrée] arrival in France, have suffered this type of remarks in the hope that this is not the case for us. Finally, the chorus continues “, she breathes, saddened. During his short breaks, Ousmane spends time on Twitter, a social network engulfed by controversies: “Before, the adherents of far-right ideas were discreet. Now, the Islamophobic discourse is completely uninhibited.”
Three kilometers from Neuhof, in the district of Meinau, where the gigantic mosque is being built Eyyub Sultan, the threat is no longer virtual. The building was targeted, in particular after the Millî Görüş association, behind the construction, was accused by the government of“go against the values of the Republic”. The reason ? This movement of Turkish origin refused to sign the charter of principles of Islam in France last January, which notably denounces “instrumentalisation” Islam policy and proscribed “interference” of foreign states. The organization justified itself by denouncing an ambiguous charter and “political interference in religion”.
After this media spillover, threatening letters with Islamophobic overtones have multiplied against the association. “We especially noticed that they took up the imagination of the ‘great replacement’ [une thèse complotiste selon laquelle la population blanche et chrétienne serait menacée de disparition par l’arrivée d’immigrés musulmans], dear to Eric Zemmour “, describe Eyüp Sahin. The regional president of Milli Görüş takes a thick filing cabinet from his desk that lists them. He flips through it and stops at a letter signed by a mysterious “federation against Islam”, dating from September.
The Great Mosque of Strasbourg, which is not linked to Millî Görüş, assures franceinfo to have received the same missive. This accuses : “For a long time, you Islamists, Muslims, tried to take control of our West by cruel acts.” She also blames the Muslims for the attacks of the 11 September 2001 in New York and from 7 January 2015 at the premises of Charlie hebdo, amalgamating terrorism and Islam.
Violent comments that spread to the faithful. For Eyüp Sahin, impossible to ignore the fears aroused by such speeches. “The role of the mosque is also to calm the debate. We adapt the Friday sermon to evoke this Islamophobic climate, without going into political considerations. The more hate speech there is, the more one intensifies the speech of peace. “
When the young faithful of the mosque meet in a large room resembling a student home, current affairs quickly flood the discussions. As if they were in their living room, they throw a few valves, confide in each other, evoke their torments. “It does us good to be able to talk about our feelings. But that does not take away from the fact that I am afraid, every time I go to pray, that some will carry out the threats “, states Abdullah, 25 years. Shis friends nod. “We have to live with fear in our stomachs, it’s not normal”, he blurted out with a serious air.
His other haunting : see veiled women around him being targeted. In her practice in the north of the city, Samira, a psychologist, listens to these women and their relatives talk about their fears about “to suspicious looks”. “They tell me about the trauma that invades them. Others tell me that they are afraid of being assaulted. “
Samira herself wears a veil on a daily basis. She goes every weekend to the cultural association Exchange, hosted by the mosque of a residential area of Bischheim, a town north of Strasbourg. This Saturday morning in October, enlivened by the cries of children, she entrusts to other volunteers his tiredness to be “constantly judged” on the scarf that dresses her hair.
“Politicians are speaking out for our emancipation, but we just wish we were no longer a subject of debate.”
Samira, psychologist and volunteer within the association Echangeto franceinfo
Hassan Chakouk, secretary of the association, points out that in the recent German federal elections, the question of the place of Islam was marginal in the debates. And that here, we are no less interested in politics than elsewhere : “We can no longer afford to hide important topics. We are still experiencing an ecological crisis “, assertshe, evoking thes deadly floods that hit Germany last summer : “There is only the Rhine that separates us. We were shocked.”
“And then, iThere is inflation, our purchasing power… It bothers us. We talk all the time about the price of gasoline “, clutches Miloud Daoudi. the president of the association, in his forties with a calm voice, almost remembers with nostalgia the first confinement, in the midst of the C pandemicovid-19. A period during which the association distributed more than a hundred meals a day and had opened a helpline for isolated people. “There, we all supported each other without distinction of confession, skin color. We all mourned the same dead and all that mattered was solidarity. We thought we were done with identity debates “, he recalls.
For Jamila, one of the managers of the social center of Neuhof, “talk about more relevant subjects for working-class neighborhoods [dans les médias] could perhaps reduce abstention“. Refocusing the debate would also prevent some of the young people interviewed from wondering about their future in France. Expatriation in Germany is already an option for Abdullah, young engineer. Ashraf also wonders. The young man saw her sister move to Dubai to work for a large French catering group. “The job of his dreams. There, she is far from all these problems “, remarks this first year student of Staps, who will vote in 2022 for the first time. It remains to be seen who his choice will turn to.