Paris restaurant owner refuses to serve hijab-wearing women as ‘terrorists are Muslim and all Muslims are terrorists’
In the latest instance of intercultural tensions in France, a restaurant owner in the Paris suburb of Tremblay-en-France is facing an investigation after chasing two veiled Muslim women out of his premises on Saturday.
His actions, caught on video, provoked a furious response and prompted prosecutors to open an inquiry into racial discrimination.
The incident, filmed by one of the two women and posted online, shows the other saying: “We don’t want to be served by racists.”
The restaurateur responds: “Racists like me don’t plant bombs and don’t kill people.”
He added that “terrorists are Muslim and all Muslims are terrorists. I don’t want people like you in my place. Now you know it you can get out.”
The boss of Le Cenacle restaurant later apologised for his actions as calls to boycott his establishment flooded social media sites alongside negative reviews.
Things “got out of hand,” the restaurant owner said to a group of men that confronted him over the incident, due to the current tensions around the burkini debate, but also because he had a friend who had died at the Bataclan attack last November.