Al Adou Al Hamim

The bombings that struck Paris in 1985 triggered off a wave of hostility against Arab immigrants and French Muslims. “Each time that the West and Islam have met, they have behaved like intimate enemies.” The West called on millions of Muslim workers, but how do these immigrants live their situation in France? Have they assimilated and why do many of them go back to religion? Ben Massoud talks about his arrival in Marseilles, his hopes and disappointments: “Parents don’t have authority any more. We’re often uneducated and don’t know how to bring our children up as we should. We have lost our youth, our wives, our children. Our only hope is God.” Bassam, a French-naturalised Syrian, is the owner of a restaurant and an imam. He feels assimilated, while keeping his culture and his faith: “We must fight ignorance. The first verse of the Qu’ran tells us to learn and read. Immigrants are attracted to Islam in order to re-find their roots and identity.” A Paris butcher recounts how Bassam made him give up his prejudices. The owner of the “Vieux Lyon” restaurant, who declares he is an atheist; the wife and daughter of Ben Massoud, a former harki who has gone back to religion, and a converted bookseller… this gallery of characters, who are approached with sensitivity and irony, defuses the media’s blown-up coverage of the “social issue”, whilst affirming a categorical criticism of fundamentalism.