Protesters at anti-Islam event

ANTI-RACIST bodies protested outside a meeting opposing the “Islamisation of Europe” at the weekend.

Some 200 people from groups such as SOS Racisme held up banners bearing slogans such as “no fascists in our districts”, as an event called “Assises contre l’islamisation” was held in the 12th arrondissement.

The meeting was organised by a Nice-based far right group, Bloc Identitaire, who said that “for the first time, speakers came together from the whole of Europe to denounce the attempted Islamic conquest at work on the continent”. They said about 1,000 people bought tickets.

The leader of the European Grassroots Anti-racist Movement, Benjamin Abtan, said in Le Nouvel Observateur the organisers’ belief that there was a “Muslim invasion” which would “destroy Europe’s identity” was a fantasy.

People “must not underestimate the significance” of the event, he said, and must be wary of attempts by the right-wingers to influence French politics. He said the event encouraged stigmatisation against Muslims, seen as “the Other” whom we should discriminate against and expel.