France: Butcher Terrorised and Driven Out by Muslims Because he Sold Pork

Intimidations, proselytism, drug trafficking… For several months, shopkeepers and locals in the Italie shopping centre, in Rennes, have been complaining about pressures and they talk about a deteriorating climate. In the crosshairs: a handful of troublemakers.

In the Italie shopping centre, in the Blosne district of Rennes, the butcher-processor has finally closed its doors at the end of April. “Worn out by the pressure,” the shopkeeper sold his premises. At the beginning of June, in renovated premises, a halal butcher will move in, the second in this site which has fifteen shops.

In eleven years of operation, the butcher has had his window smashed a dozen times. Why? “Because I had the misfortune to sell pork!”, assures Jérôme. A few years ago, a message of about fifty centimetres was engraved by knife on to a wooden door in the back of his shop: “Death to the pigs, we will bleed you.”

“As in previous cases, I filed a complaint at the police station. As in the previous cases, the police refused to come here to take note of it. I am bitter.” According to the man in his forties, the intimidations even went as far as physical threats. “Three years ago, one evening, a dozen thugs came into my shop. They told me that if I cooked galettes-saucisses [tn: sausage pastries, a delicacy associated with Rennes] outside, as has been the tradition since forever, it would end very badly. Right away, I stopped making galettes-saucisses on Friday, a day of prayer for Muslims. I made them on Saturday in the early morning, when the troublemakers in this district are still asleep.”

Shocked by what they consider “racist” acts, the inhabitants have circulated a petition to denounce these actions and show their solidarity with the butcher. Several hundred signatures were collected. “Nothing changed,” Jérôme admits publicly. “I tried to resist, but I’ve given up. Today, I’m abandoning the ship. However, my business is doing well.”

In the district, the butcher’s misfortunes are known to everyone. All the more so as they do not appear to be isolated. Abdalah, owner of the neighbouring halal grocer’s shop, set up in the Italie only a few months ago. The young men recounts how, several times, people demanded that he stop selling alcohol. “I changed the place of my bottles, but I held firm. It passed. Today, there’s no hostility.” A chemist who has been here for nine years, Anne explains: “There is no crime problem here. It’s quite calm. But there is a problem of intolerance, something we didn’t see before.”

Source: Le Mensuel de Rennes
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