Islamophobia is deeply rooted in French culture, and it has only gotten worse as time has gone on.
Muslims first came to France after they colonized a large portion of North Africa. Algeria was one of the only countries that was officially considered a part of France.

Algerians were free to live in France, but they were soon faced with discrimination.
France’s Islamophobic rhetoric’s have fueled the hate for Muslim people all across Europe and other countries as well.

In 2019, Brenton Tarrant killed 51 Muslims at two New Zealand mosques.

He wrote a manifesto in which he talked about how he heard that France was being invaded by nonwhites, so he took a trip to see for himself. The manifesto was titled “The Great Replacement,” a reference to the title of a 2012 book by right-wing French polemicist Renaud Camus.

France has also been known to turn away Syrian refugees and other asylum seekers. They also have been trying to legalize more Islamophobic legislation.

Recently, the media had turned into a frenzy after the French Senate voted to ban hijabs for girls under the age of 18. Many were infuriated at the fact that the age to consent to sex is now lower than the age of consent to the hijab.
The age to consent to sex in France is 15 years old.

Muslim American Representative Ilhan Omar took to social media to post a video of herself wearing her hijab and used the viral hashtag #handsoffmyhijab.

The hashtag was created by American Muslim women to support the Muslim women in France.

“It’s sad to see people that look like me being stripped away from their rights. It is so wrong that they’re trying to ban hijabs and it shows just how Islamophobic France is,” junior Ugasa Ali said. “I can’t imagine not being able to practice my religion freely, and I’m grateful to live in a place where I don’t have to worry about these kinds of things.”

These discriminatory policies allow people around the world to believe that Islamophobia is acceptable.

France’s secular beliefs are the main reason Muslim people are being targeted.

The French government claims that they do not favor any one religion and guarantee their peaceful co-existence in respect of the laws and principles of the Republic.
Clearly, this is not the case.

The Islamophobia in France is beyond the hijab. The government also wants to make the halal slaughtering of chickens illegal. They also are trying to force halal grocery stores to sell alcohol and pork and they want to ban mothers wearing headscarves from accompanying children on school field trips.

The French government wants to have control over Muslim people, and the only way they can do that is by oppressing them.

France needs to stop trying to mask their incessant Islamophobia with the separation of church and state. People constantly say that Muslim countries enforce the hijab, but the unfortunate reality is that Western countries are trying to force women to take it off.

The government needs to stop policing Muslim women on what they can or cannot wear. What’s more, other countries like the U.S. that claim they support religious freedom must speak out against France.