PARIS — France’s new Muslim education minister called for more respect Wednesday after becoming the target of slurs, while a top Socialist politician said a magazine should be convicted of inciting racial hatred for referring to her religion and ethnic background as a “provocation.”
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a 36-year-old rising star in the Socialist Party, said she has been the target of racially motivated verbal attacks over the past week, including being branded “Ayatollah” by a conservative weekly.
“I call for respect,” she said in an email. “And I repeat in particular that racism is not an opinion, but a crime.”
The Morocco-born Vallaud-Belkacem, who doesn’t publicly speak about her religion, is seen as an easy target to attack the unpopular Socialist government led by President Francois Hollande.
She is a young, Muslim woman in a political landscape made up mostly of white, Catholic men. She’s an outspoken defender of gender and racial equality, and supported a divisive law legalizing gay marriage last year.
One conservative politician referred to Vallaud-Belkacem as a “smiling Vietnamese Communist,” and a fake identity card has appeared on social media falsely claiming she changed her name from Claudine Dupont to get promoted.
A top Socialist Party official threatened legal action against Minute magazine, which in its latest edition calls her religious and ethnic background a “provocation.” The official, Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, said the magazine should be convicted of inciting racial hatred.