France’s response to protests is making Islamophobia worse. But ministers won’t even utter the word | Kamélia Ouaissa

French people like me live in fear because far-right hate speech goes unchecked. The consequences can be deadly Anger at the dilapidated state of schools may have been the starting point for the unrest that has rocked France for over a month, but the protest movement has grown into something much bigger. It has widened to take in a far broader segment of society whose grievances, including institutional racism and Islamophobia, are now connecting. I have no doubt that one of direct causes of this snowball effect is the repressive nature of the response to the initial protests, which were treated entirely as a matter of law and order – criminalised, not listened to. Kamélia Ouaissa is a French journalist based in Paris Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...