New slogan ‘Bismillah’ in student protests in France, what happened behind it

This phrase, made from a mixture of Arabic and French words, means ‘In the name of God, it is darkness’. Young people have seized on this slogan mainly to mock the ridiculous attempts by law enforcement agencies to infiltrate the student movement in order to suppress it.

It is believed that a person first sent this message while trying to infiltrate a private chat group of students on Snapchat. Imitating the colloquial style of young people, he wrote, ‘Bismillah... we will break everything.’ The messages, sent from different profiles using Algerian flag emojis and fictitious names, spread quickly on social media because their language was unusual. Students allege that this exposed the authorities’ failure to understand young people's language and a racist mentality of pinning the blame for vandalism on Arabs or Black people.

The French Ministry of the Interior did not comment directly on the matter but said that investigators sometimes use fake online identities to catch suspects. The movement has been ongoing in France since last month with several demands, including improving educational institution infrastructure and teacher recruitment, and has now turned into a broader movement. In the meantime, at least 24 schools have been damaged in the violence and nearly 8,000 people have been arrested. The satirical slogan is now being used beyond France in Belgium and Germany as well.