PARIS (AP) - He is Muslim, of Algerian origin and was born in a poor neighbourhood. Like other French citizens who have suffered discrimination, he is angry. Equal Opportunities Minister Azouz Begag says he is sometimes referred to as the government's "token Arab."
A writer and a scholar, he finds himself defending his competence just like the minorities for whom he is working.
Twenty years ago, Begag said, he predicted the unrest in the ghettoes ringing French cities that exploded into fiery riots a year ago Friday. The country was stunned at the inequalities laid bare by violence that heaved forth from the squalid housing projects where many Muslims of North African origin live.
Begag, who began life in a Lyon shantytown, was not.
There have been nearly a dozen violent incidents since the start of October, most involving attacks on police who, in some cases, were drawn into traps. Three buses were attacked late Wednesday and early Thursday just outside Paris. The attackers were hooded in some cases, and some carried handguns.
"Today, I am an angry minister," Begag said this week in an interview with The Associated Press and during a meeting with reporters.
After his appointment in June 2005 as France's first Muslim minister in a newly created post, the 49-year-old Begag, hand-picked by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, said that for weeks he brushed off "insulting questions, insulting remarks" from the press and politicians.
"Today, I still face recriminations of the sort, 'He is the token Arab,"' Begag said.
"I want to say by this just how difficult it still is, even when one is at the highest political level in this country, to show that one is competent, show his talents, his motivation."
However, it has been hard to dispel the view that Begag's appointment to an otherwise all-white cabinet smacked of tokenism, much in the way some saw hypocrisy in the naming of a black anchor as a summer replacement on France's most-watched nightly news program.
Begag's lack of political experience and his close association with Villepin cast further suspicion on an appointment that Begag called "courageous and bold."
The minister was the victim of discrimination in the United States: He was briefly held for questioning in October 2005 by U.S. customs agents at the Atlanta airport in what the Foreign Ministry called a "regrettable incident" by an overzealous agent. The United States apologized.
For 18 months, Begag has worked quietly to install the notion of equal opportunity for all - Arabs, blacks, women, the handicapped - in a society that, Begag contends, has lived for too long with the "myth of equality."
Begag is in the midst of a 17-city "Tour de France of Diversity," to encourage companies to sign on to a "diversity charter" and set up meetings with minority jobseekers. By year's end, he expects 10,000 companies to have signed the pact.
For Begag, this and other efforts are not just technical adjustments. Installation of an equal opportunities minister and passage of an equal opportunities law and other measures amount to a dramatic reinvention of the social fabric, he contends.
"This is a new culture of belonging for French society that we are creating. ... It is irreversible."
Begag came to the government from the elite world of intellectuals with 40 books to his credit and 20 years studying minorities and integration with the National Centre for Scientific Research. He has been a visiting professor at Cornell University; one of his books, the largely autobiographical "Le Gone du Chaba," is on some U.S. college reading lists.
He also has firsthand knowledge of discrimination.
Begag was born in an immigrant slum outside the southern city of Lyon. His family, from Setif, Algeria, later moved to a project known for violence. Conditions, he says, were far worse than today. However, he had big dreams, and Rev. Martin Luther King was his hero.
Begag tells young people they must help themselves by being vocal, not destructive.
"Once these children have equal opportunity in their heads, once they have this culture of equality, they won't let go," he said.
A writer and a scholar, he finds himself defending his competence just like the minorities for whom he is working.
Twenty years ago, Begag said, he predicted the unrest in the ghettoes ringing French cities that exploded into fiery riots a year ago Friday. The country was stunned at the inequalities laid bare by violence that heaved forth from the squalid housing projects where many Muslims of North African origin live.
Begag, who began life in a Lyon shantytown, was not.
There have been nearly a dozen violent incidents since the start of October, most involving attacks on police who, in some cases, were drawn into traps. Three buses were attacked late Wednesday and early Thursday just outside Paris. The attackers were hooded in some cases, and some carried handguns.
"Today, I am an angry minister," Begag said this week in an interview with The Associated Press and during a meeting with reporters.
After his appointment in June 2005 as France's first Muslim minister in a newly created post, the 49-year-old Begag, hand-picked by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, said that for weeks he brushed off "insulting questions, insulting remarks" from the press and politicians.
"Today, I still face recriminations of the sort, 'He is the token Arab,"' Begag said.
"I want to say by this just how difficult it still is, even when one is at the highest political level in this country, to show that one is competent, show his talents, his motivation."
However, it has been hard to dispel the view that Begag's appointment to an otherwise all-white cabinet smacked of tokenism, much in the way some saw hypocrisy in the naming of a black anchor as a summer replacement on France's most-watched nightly news program.
Begag's lack of political experience and his close association with Villepin cast further suspicion on an appointment that Begag called "courageous and bold."
The minister was the victim of discrimination in the United States: He was briefly held for questioning in October 2005 by U.S. customs agents at the Atlanta airport in what the Foreign Ministry called a "regrettable incident" by an overzealous agent. The United States apologized.
For 18 months, Begag has worked quietly to install the notion of equal opportunity for all - Arabs, blacks, women, the handicapped - in a society that, Begag contends, has lived for too long with the "myth of equality."
Begag is in the midst of a 17-city "Tour de France of Diversity," to encourage companies to sign on to a "diversity charter" and set up meetings with minority jobseekers. By year's end, he expects 10,000 companies to have signed the pact.
For Begag, this and other efforts are not just technical adjustments. Installation of an equal opportunities minister and passage of an equal opportunities law and other measures amount to a dramatic reinvention of the social fabric, he contends.
"This is a new culture of belonging for French society that we are creating. ... It is irreversible."
Begag came to the government from the elite world of intellectuals with 40 books to his credit and 20 years studying minorities and integration with the National Centre for Scientific Research. He has been a visiting professor at Cornell University; one of his books, the largely autobiographical "Le Gone du Chaba," is on some U.S. college reading lists.
He also has firsthand knowledge of discrimination.
Begag was born in an immigrant slum outside the southern city of Lyon. His family, from Setif, Algeria, later moved to a project known for violence. Conditions, he says, were far worse than today. However, he had big dreams, and Rev. Martin Luther King was his hero.
Begag tells young people they must help themselves by being vocal, not destructive.
"Once these children have equal opportunity in their heads, once they have this culture of equality, they won't let go," he said.
