Paris bans 'anti-Islamisation' pork-and-wine street party

Paris police on Tuesday banned a controversial "pork sausage and wine" street party planned by extremist groups to combat what they saw as the "Islamisation" of a city neighbourhood. The event was planned for Friday evening at a time when the district's streets are usually jammed with Muslims coming out of mosques and just before Algeria were due to play England in the football World Cup.

But police banned the event and any rival gatherings in the Goutte d'Or area of northern Paris' 18th arrondissement, or district, saying in a statement that it was likely to cause "serious risks to public order." The plan had sparked outrage from politicians and anti-racism groups who said it was blatantly racist and could lead to violence on the streets.



The controversy comes after a government-sponsored debate on national identity earlier this year spotlighted anxieties about the integration of France's five to six million Muslims. The Goutte d'Or party, or "apero geant" as it was called in French, was a new and politically-charged take on a growing trend in France for huge open-air drinks parties organised on the social networking site Facebook.

Many of them have been banned because authorities fear mass drunkenness. The original idea for the Goutte d'Or gathering apparently came from a local woman who set up a Facebook page announcing the event to fight against what she saw as the increasing "Islamisation" of her area.