FRANCE: A lawsuit to be heard in a courtroom outside Paris one week from today encompasses some of the most sensitive issues in French politics: immigration and discrimination; Islam and terrorism.
Nine dismissed baggage-handlers, a security guard, the largest trade union in France CFDT and anti-racism group MRAP are suing the prefect and deputy prefect of the Seine-Saint-Denis department north of Paris because they withdrew security clearance from Muslim workers at Roissy airport.
A total of 72 Muslim men have now lost their clearance to work at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport. Jacques Lebrot, the deputy prefect who is in charge of security at Roissy, said the clearances were rescinded after a lengthy investigation by anti-terrorist unit UCLAT concluded the employees represented a "vulnerability or danger".
The investigation followed bombings in the public transport systems of Madrid and London.
"The risk of terrorism in France is high," said Mr Lebrot. "We have to wonder about someone who goes several times on holiday to Pakistan."
Mr Lebrot alleges that some of the airport employees stayed in "training camps" in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and that one was a friend of Richard Reid, the British citizen who was sentenced to life in prison for attempting to blow up an airliner between Paris and Miami in 2001.
But French officials refuse to provide evidence to support such allegations, saying it would endanger sources.
The men say they were questioned about their habits of prayer and worship before their security badges were revoked.
Three French trade unions will meet next Tuesday to decide whether to call a strike over the issue.
Mr Lebrot points out that the vast majority of the approximately 16,600 Muslims employed at Roissy have not had their security clearance reviewed.
But the French High Authority Against Discrimination, established in the wake of last year's race riots in Paris and elsewhere, has begun its own investigation, citing "presumptions of discrimination".
On October 21st, right-wing interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy said that 43 people had already lost their security clearance because "there were precise elements which led us to forbid their entry to the airport . . .
"I would rather we have a lawsuit because we've been too strict than end up with a tragedy because we weren't careful.
"If these people think . . . they are victims of discrimination, let them defend their rights before a tribunal."
Last April, extreme right-wing presidential candidate Philippe de Villiers published a book entitled The Mosques of Roissy in which he claimed that radical Islamist groups had infiltrated the airport.
The domestic intelligence agency, Renseignements Généraux (RG), which Mr de Villiers claimed was the source for his book, debunked some of his allegations.
But a report by the RG quoted in Le Monde the same month strengthened fears of radicalism in French airports.
Employees of the Servair company in Lyon had written pro-bin Laden slogans on the doors of an aircraft, it said.
Other airport employees refused contact with women staff, wore beards and Islamic robes or demanded that their work schedules be adapted to Islamic prayer times.