
Far north, in France, a few minutes by train from the border with Belgium, we reach Lille. In Lille, there is the high school named Lycée Averroès, located on the second floor of a building boasting Flemish architecture, that houses the Islamic League of the North, a mosque and a Muslim bookstore. Upstairs, there is the prayer room reserved for women, and the Koranic school. It is the first Muslim private school funded by the state in France.
Now that school, the multicultural utopia, has been rocked by the resignation of one of his teachers, Sofiane Zitouni, who explained his reasons in an editorial in the newspaper Libération. Zitouni accuses the school of being riddled with "anti-Semitism and Islamism." Of Algerian origin, and a professor of philosophy, Zitouni wrote that he could no longer tolerate what he saw every day in the high school which he called "Islamic territory funded by the state."
In his complaint in Libération, the teacher writes that "in twenty years of work as a teacher I have never heard so many anti-Semitic slogans coming from the mouths of students."
Zitouni wanted to make known to his students the thought and work of the philosopher named after their school, Averroes:
"I discovered that on the shelves of the school there were no books of the Andalusian philosopher, nor books about him. However, I found the works of the brothers Ramadan, popular in this school" These are Tariq and Hani Ramadan, the Swiss Islamists connected with the Muslim Brotherhood. "One day I started a course on the philosopher Spinoza and a student asked me why [I am teaching about him], because this philosopher was Jewish"
Another big problem with his students was: "My alleged Islamic orthodoxy", and the fact that his colleagues, observant Muslims, could perform their ritual ablutions in public toilets and prayers were officiated near the coffee machine.
"Death to the Jews" graffiti, however, appear on many school walls outside Paris and other French cities.
Now the reply is the famous lycée, once symbol of French multiculturalism, where anti-Semitism is flourishing.