"On my class photos more than half the kids were white," he says. "On today's pictures only one or two are."
Ghettos shackle French Muslims
news.bbc.co.uk
Rioting by youths in a Paris suburb has highlighted the discontent among sections of France's immigrant population.
The BBC News website's Henri Astier explores the sense of alienation felt by many French Muslims.
When Nadir Dendoune was growing up in the 1980s, his home town of L'Ile Saint-Denis, north of Paris, was a fairly diverse place.
"We were all poor, but there were French people, East Europeans, as well as blacks and Arabs," says Mr Dendoune, 33, an author and something of a celebrity in his estate.
Two decades on, the complexion of the place has changed.
"On my class photos more than half the kids were white," he says. "On today's pictures only one or two are."
L'Ile St-Denis is among the "suburbs" around French cities where immigrants, notably from former North African colonies, have been housed since the 1960s.
Blighted by bad schools and endemic unemployment, the suburbs are hard to escape.
FRENCH ISLAM
Second largest religion
Five million Muslims (estimate)
35% Algerian origin (estimate)
25% Moroccan origin (estimate)
10% Tunisian origin (estimate)
Concentrated in poor suburbs of Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille and other cities
The immigrants' children and grandchildren are still stuck there - an angry underclass that is increasingly identified through religion.
Ten years ago these youths were seen as French "Arabs".
Now most are commonly referred to, and define themselves, as "Muslims". |
