A report broadcast on M6 at the end of January by the programme Zone interdite on Islamism in Roubaix in the north of France – “Face au danger de l’Islam radical, les réponses de l’Etat” (Faced with the danger of radical Islam, the state’s responses) – sparked a major controversy. The journalist Ophelie Meunier and the lawyer Amine Elbahi were threatened and placed under police protection. In an interview with Marianne published on Thursday February 3, La Voix du Nord reporter Bruno Renoul, who is featured in the documentary and works in Roubaix, spoke about the difficulties of covering this issue in his profession. “When you do research on political Islam, you are quickly labelled Islamophobic by the public,” he laments.
According to Bruno Renoul, what is the state of Islamism in Roubaix today? “If you are a journalist [there], it is inevitably a crucial aspect,” the reporter asserts to the weekly publication. “If I work in a city with a strong automotive industry, I have to take an interest in it,” he continues to back up his argument.
Bruno Renoul later added to the same medium: “Roubaix is a city to which Islam belongs.” However, it is not always easy to deal with the subject. I have developed a sensitivity to the subject that has led me to speak about it regularly, but I have many colleagues who have no desire to be insulted or threatened,” he explained shortly afterwards. The accusation of Islamophobia is not necessarily an easy one to deal with…”.
This accusation of Islamophobia is made by several people. For example, local association activists, some MPs or even people acting on social networks, Bruno Renoul tells Marianne. “It is all the more difficult […] because we saw in the Samuel Paty case that this kind of accusation can have very serious consequences,” he explains. There was a time when he was automatically accused if he raised this issue in one of his articles. “It hurts to be accused of being driven by a racist attitude and hatred towards others,” he lamented to journalists.
Bruno Renoul was initially very affected by this accusation and told the news portal that he gradually got used to it. In his opinion, it is “too tacky to be taken seriously” as it amounts to “calling the other person a racist to end the debate”.Sometimes, however, it is even worse. “I have also received threats, for example a message threatening me that I will be ‘kalacher’ in the street in Roubaix,” the reporter reported. He concluded, not without bitterness: “At some point you get used to it and tell yourself that it’s just words. And then you think back to the context of Charlie Hebdo and remember that there is also the consummation of deeds.”