the waste of France, which is emptying its Muslim cadres

The departure of managers Muslims and North Africans in France, fleeing stigma and discrimination, is not an illusion.

In a survey devoted to this topic, the newspaper Le Monde collected numerous testimonies from immigrant leaders still “well settled”, but who are thinking of leaving France, because of the stigmatization they face, which has been increasing since 2015 and has increased since the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 7.

According to academician Julien Talpin, the author of a sociological study of this phenomenon, “departures number in the thousands, maybe even in the tens of thousands.”

A day after the publication of this article, the rector of the Grand Mosque in Paris, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, wrote his own announcement in the same newspaper, confirming the “painful truth” and condemning the enormous “waste”.

This reality was already highlighted by the New York Times in February 2022 and in a report by France Culture in March of the same year, the rector reminds, but without “creating any significant awareness”.

Citing a project for director Ramzy Bédi’s film about a France “without North Africans”, Chems-Eddine Hafiz says he is convinced “those who harbor hatred would rejoice in this absence”.

Immigrant leaders are leaving France in “thousands, even tens of thousands”

“This increase in the silent exodus of Muslim leaders from France is deeply worrying” and reveals a “disturbing reality,” writes the rector of a Paris mosque.

This is because, he explains, emigration becomes an “attractive alternative” for Muslim professionals who “encounter a glass ceiling in France where their skills and potential often remain unknown”.

Based on the testimony collected by Le Monde and all the surveys conducted on this topic, Hafiz tries to explain the root causes of this phenomenon. He immediately mentions the “violence” suffered by Muslims, which is “alarming”.

According to the New York Times, there were 52% more cases in 2020 than in 2019, while a 2017 study found that black and Arab youth were 20 times more likely to be stopped by the police.

Muslim leaders leave France ‘not out of disillusionment, but out of rejection’

The rector of the Grand Mosque in Paris also points to the worsening of the stigmatization of Muslims by a part of the political class, not only the extreme right, but certain media.

“According to this rhetoric, all the troubles of our society are attributed to the alleged incompatibility of Islam with the principles of Judeo-Christian civilization,” he criticizes.

Employment discrimination is also another important factor driving Muslims to leave. Having an Arabic name makes you 32% less likely to get a date.

If such a situation is clearly harmful to immigrants or French people of immigrant origin, especially Algerian, it is equally harmful to France. “This departure towards the milder horizons of our Muslim fellow citizens is a huge loss for France in terms of talents, skills and contributions”, laments the rector.

Anticipating the reactions of those who believe that the Muslims of France are responsible for their situation by the fact that Islam is “incompatible” with Western values, Chems-Eddine Hafiz makes a concrete argument.

“It is disturbing to note that the countries that welcome these French exiles are mostly steeped in Western culture and predominantly Christian like Great Britain,” he writes, citing research from the University of Lille. Hence this very relevant question that arises: “Is this cultural incompatibility or discrimination orchestrated by French public policies?” “.

How many Muslims in France?

The rector prefers to point to the failures that persist in the neighborhood despite the efforts of the state and the “anxious” discourse about the image of Islam.

In 2022, France was “hit by five terrorist attacks. Even assuming that they can all be attributed to Muslims (which is far from the case), with 5.4 million Muslims in France, and strongly affirming that every attack is a tragedy, can we really attribute responsibility for these isolated acts to an entire component of the national community ? “, asks the rector of the Paris mosque, noting that during the same year, “sixteen were arrested for crimes related to extreme right-wing terrorism. Should eleven million voters of this political movement be stigmatized? »

“Is this minority more crucial to the future of the country than the thousands of French talents of Muslim faith or culture who are leaving France, not because of disappointment, but because of feeling rejected? “, he asks, concluding that it is time to choose the path of togetherness to build a more harmonious and inclusive environment and future, “for all members of our society, including our Muslim fellow citizens”.