France: Mustapha Guilty of being Arab and Muslim

PARIS - The story of a journalist of the French daily « Le Monde, » detailing harassment and racist remarks on the Internet has triggered a wave of stories about everyday racism in France, including the privileged milieu.

•     "I thought my" quality "of journalist in the world would finally save me from my major "defects" to be an Arab, having a too tanned skin, being a Muslim," wrote the journalist late September, saying he introdces himself now on the phone as "Mr. Kessous" skipping over his first name, Mustafa, to avoid problems.
  
      In this article, Mustapha Kessous, 30, multiplies the examples of everyday racism, met when making reports or during his meetings in all social and cultural milieus. This testimony inflamed the French Internet and gave new meaning to the lancinate issue of racial prejudice in France.
  
      Just hours after its publication, the article by Mr. Kessous drew hundreds of comments and has shared hundreds of times on Twitter and Facebook, people transforming even their profile "Mustapha" by sympathy for the journalist According to « Le Monde. »
  
      For days, the name of the writer was the most searched on Google France. For many French with a non-European origin, the story of the journalist looks a lot like theirs.
  
      Like him, they know what is being denied entry into a club or a trendy restaurant, undergo a search of police, to be told that the employment or housing coveted has already been taken, or endure racist jokes.
  
      In a comment sent to le Monde, a young engineer, Lylia Kateb says that when her department head has introduced her to the big boss in pronouncing her Arabic sounding name, he hastened to explain: "But do not worry, she's just OK."
  
      Since the riots in 2005, had inflamed the suburbs with large immigrant populations, greater attention has been paid to minorities both in government and the television studios.
  
      Ten days before the article by Mustapha Kessous, remarks deemed racist by Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux, a close associate of President Nicolas Sarkozy, had made a "buzz" on the internet before going into media-political scandal.
  
      "When there is one, it’s okay. It is when there are many that problems are there," said the minister about an UMP party militant (in power right) of North African origin without suspecting that he was filmed.
  
      "Brice Hortefeux has too much humor. I know," writes in his article Mustapha Kessous who tells that received by him for an interview, he "arrived, shaked my hand and smiled and then said : Do you have your papers?".
  
      The High Authority against Discrimination (Halde), an independent administrative authority created in late 2004, welcomed the article by Mr. Kessous.
  
      His testimony is very useful because they said it also happens  t »o  a journalist. » " we Often think it only happens to people who have social difficulties," declared Director of Communication Marylene Courivaud.
  
      The prohibition of any statistics on ethnicity, on behalf of republican equality, does not measure discrimination in France, a country of immigration, with particularly 4 to 5 million people of Muslim origin .
  
      An expert committee must deliver this month to the head of state on how best to measure diversity. "After years of denial, the French society has finally realized the massive systemic discrimination in employment, housing, business creation," said Patrick Lozes, president of the Representative Council of Black Associations (CRAN ).
  
      
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.