A ban on hookah pipes in French towns is fuelling racial tensions, with opponents claiming that the move is an attack on ethnic minority customs.
At least four mayors in southeast France and one in the Paris region have made it illegal to smoke them in public after complaints from locals.
Critics say that the ban illustrates how France is turning against immigrant communities from Muslim countries in response to Islamist terrorism.
Shisha, the flavoured tobacco used in hookah pipes, which is traditionally associated with the Persian Gulf and north Africa, has become popular in Europe, notably France, in recent years.
However, Charles Scibetta, mayor of Carros, near Nice, said that they were a “social and sanitary plague”. Mr Carros, who is one of the mayors to have banned the pipes, said that he acted because 20 youths who gathered to smoke hookahs in his town, which has a population of 12,000, were sowing fear among families.
He said that 180 people had written to the police complaining that the ban was designed to keep voters out of the arms of the far right. “Should we do nothing? Wouldn’t that be giving the National Front a free run?” he said.
Hamdi Chebli, a 22-year-old man of north African descent, described the ban as “stupid and injust”. He wrote to the mayor asking him to change his mind but his appeal fell on deaf ears.
Officials say that the bans have nothing to do with religion, pointing out that some Islamic clerics are also against hookahs, but are a public order issue.