FRENCH RESTAURANT REFUSES TO SERVE MUSLIMS
Ahigh-end French restaurant has been accused of Islamophobia after allegedly refusing to serve Muslim customers, arguing “All Muslims are terrorists”. Footage posted online and circulated widely in France appears to show two Muslim women refused service at Le Cenacle in Tremblay-en-France, which is listed in the 2016 Michelin guide. A man, who is reportedly the restaurant’s chef, tells the women: “The terrorists are Muslim and all Muslims are terrorists… They recently killed a priest. This is a secular country and I have a right to an opinion… I don’t want people like you here. Full stop.”
The incident reportedly took place on the Saturday at the Le Cenacle restaurant, which is on the 2016 Michelin guide, located in Tremblay-en-France, an area in the suburbs of Paris.
The women, one of whom appeared in the video wearing a headscarf, said they would leave. “I do not wish to be served by a racist,” she is heard saying. The footage of the incident at the restaurant has been shared widely on social media.
On Sunday, members of the local Muslim community gathered outside the restaurant in protest, which led the man to eventually apologise and reveal that his friend was killed in the attack on the Bataclan in November, 2015. The CCIF (Committee Against Islamophobia in France) has issued a statement of support to the two women and pledged to give “emotional and legal support” to them.
“What kills me in the scandalous video #Cenacle is the indifference of other clients,” the committee’s director Marwan Muhammed said on Twitter. In a message on Twitter, Laurence Rossignol, the French minister for families, children and women’s rights said she had ordered an investigation and called for sanctions against the “intolerable behaviour” of the restaurant’s manager. According to Le Parisien, the chef has now been interviewed by police on suspicion of enacting “racial discrimination.” He has since told local media, “I spoke out of turn and I apologise, I have a friend who died in the Bataclan attack and wrongly mixed everything up. I do not truly believe the things I said, my comments did not reflect what I really think.”