The situation was further exacerbated by the escalating political dispute between French President Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This dispute had an adverse impact on the French government's approach to immigrants, particularly Muslims, as they were increasingly viewed as supporters of Erdoğan .
It is important to note that the Turkish community in France numbers around 700,000, with half of them holding French nationality. It appears that Macron, who values culture and history, may be attempting to revive an old European perspective that erroneously considers all Muslims to be Turks.
A racist minority
It is essential to recognize that only a minority French population holds racist views.
But the problem is nonetheless severe and the government's policies have had profound effects on various sectors, including public administration, law enforcement organisations, and even the private sector.
Consequently, there has been an increase in racist actions and behaviour exhibited by police officers, teachers, and university professors towards immigrants.
On 15 February 2022, the French website Mediapart published an investigative report shedding light on the ongoing injustice felt by the families of the victims, two years after an 84-year-old French extremist attacked the Bayonne mosque in southern France, the only mosque on the Basque coast.
Despite the presence of two individuals in the mosque, the authorities swiftly dismissed the incident as an act of terrorism. The extremist had intended to set fire to the mosque using petrol, but when he discovered the presence of the two people, he shot them.
One was hit in the neck, while the other sustained three bullet wounds to the side and arm. The French government and judicial authorities displayed no interest in the incident as an act of terrorism.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office deemed the case unworthy of consideration, citing the shooter's "partial weakness of judgment." The offender, Claude Cinque, belonged to the far-right "National Rally" party led by Marine Le Pen and had previously run for parliamentary elections.
Judicial negligence
This case of judicial negligence is not an isolated incident and is preceded by several similar incidents, such as the killing of an 80-year-old Algerian woman in Marseille, shot in the face by a police officer during protests in 2018.
Despite repeated requests from Amnesty International for the French judicial authorities to thoroughly investigate the case, no action was taken.
On 8 March 2022, Mediapart published a report on complaints filed by 15 immigrants detained in administrative detention centers for irregular immigrants in Nice, southern France. They alleged that the police intentionally played pornographic sounds through loudspeakers while Muslim detainees were praying.
Some of the detainees stated that these sounds were specifically targeted during prayer times. The lawyer appointed by Nice's Bar Association to handle the case believed that "the police deliberately engage in this behaviour to demonstrate their disrespect for the detainees' religion."
Such behaviour comes when 23% of respondents in France to a poll conducted by Statasta, a specialised website in global statistics, in July 2022, admitted to holding racist views. That is almost a quarter of the people questioned.