A video showing a restaurateur in a Paris suburb apparently refusing to serve two Muslim women has sparked anger in France and calls for protest.
In the video, widely shared on social media, the man tells the hijab-wearing women: “Terrorists are Muslims and all Muslims are terrorists.”
The incident took place at Le Cenacle restaurant in Tremblay-en-France on Saturday night.
On Sunday, the man apologised to a group who had gathered outside.
The local prosecutors’ office told the paper that it had opened an investigation into racial discrimination.
The video inside the restaurant appears to have been covertly filmed by one of the women, who were clearly emotional.
“We don’t want to be served by racists,” one of them said.
The man retorted: “Racists don’t kill people.”
He also said: “I don’t want people like you at my place. Full stop.”
French anti-Islamophobia organisation CCIF said that “following the umpteenth Islamophobic incident which… led to the humiliation of two young Muslim women” its director would be speaking outside the local mosque on Sunday evening.
The CCIF, which says it is offering legal and psychological support to the two young women, appealed for no protests outside the restaurant itself.
