Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister, visited the airport in mid-April, and claimed that there were only 122 out of out 83,000 staff with security badges who were "more or less suspect". Sarkozy had visited the airport to allay public fears, and had managed to double the figures provided by de Villiers. Sarkozy said there were moves to remove 60% of these workers' security clearance.
A week after Sarkozy's visit, the Roissy workers became the center of a political argument. Sud Aerien, an airport workers' union called his disclosure "a political stunt by a future candidate." The Socialist Party and the French Council of the Muslim Faith condemned de Villiers as an "Islamophobe". Dalil Boubakeur, who is also senior imam of the Grand Mosque of Paris, had said of Villiers' comments concerning the airport security and style of union affairs, that they were "an outrageous caricature" of Islam, and demanded an investigation.
59-year old author Philippe de Villiers is a devout Catholic and was born a Viscount. His political party, the Mouvement pour la France, is on the right wing, though is not extreme like the Front National. Though in previous elections having a low vote, comprising 5 to 8 per cent of the electorate, it seems that M. de Villiers is working towards a bigger electoral result in next year's elections. Already his party is characterized by its opposition to the European Union. Their slogan is "Giving Back France". Villiers is a deputy in the French National Assembly. In 1981, he resigned from a political post, because he would not work for Francois Mitterand.
In his book "Les Mosquees de Roissy", Villiers warned that Islam was a threat to France. He said that the luggage-handling facilities at the airport employ "predominantly Muslims and are organised on ethnic and religious criteria under a mafia-like system." In an interview from April 23, he said: "The presence of Islamic radicals is not marginal, it's real, deeply-rooted and dangerous."
For a while the issue lay dormant in the media until last month. Then, reports in AKI, Le Monde, IC Wales, Sydney Morning Herald and the BBC reported that four North African-origin baggage handlers at Roissy had their security clearance revoked.
The four individuals' passes were revoked by local government. Jacques Lebrot, head of the local government office which made the decision, said the issue was not related to their religion but because they were perceived as a terrorist risk. Lawyers for the four men said that dozens of other Muslims had been stripped of security clearance. One lawyer, Eric Moutet, said: "The link among these people is that either they are Arab - or practise their religion in a normal way." He claimed local authorities "are in essence asking people to prove they are not terrorists."
Lebrot,
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