Orty Gym owner Lynda Ellabou poses in her new all-women's gym on the outskirts of Paris, in Le Raincy, October 4, 2013. (REUTERS/Christian Hartmann)
By: presstv.ir
Source: http://www.presstv.ir/
But the owners say that once the town’s right-wing mayor discovered they were Muslims, he’s tried to shut down their business in order to keep his suburb Muslim-free. French media has taken notice of what appears to be a one-sided case of discrimination.
For many this is a perfect case of Islamophobia, because there is no religious aspect to this story. The gym happily serves clients of all races and beliefs, with no restrictions whatsoever. The only problem appears to be that the owners are openly Muslim.
Islamophobia is also a political invention: The mayor has an election next spring, and many believe he is trying to ruin the lives of two innocent people in order to win the conservative vote in this bourgeois suburb.
But there’s a deeper political message as well: Le Raincy is telling those in nearby Muslim-majority suburbs, “You are not welcome to move here.”
They say there is no such thing as bad publicity, but the owners have had their grand opening clouded with unfair concerns that being Muslim has attracted them powerful enemies who are still pushing to shut down their business.
For many Muslims in France such thinly-veiled Islamophobia may be routine, but they are increasingly less tolerant of such harassment. Analysts say the hardest step is convincing the average French citizen that their strict idea of secularism is so easily and so often used as tool for exclusion and discrimination.
