Fatal shooting and the hijab ban: racial divisions in France

>Two events that occurred almost simultaneously in France reflect the country's crisis of identity and inclusion: the killing of Nahel Merzouk by police and the ban on hijab in soccer.

Nahel Merzouk and the protests.

The murder of Nahel M. last week sparked protests and riots over allegations of police brutality and racial discrimination. Diakite's mother is a French citizen who grew up on the outskirts of Paris in an immigrant family, not far from where police shot the 17-year-old boy during an intruder stop.

The hijab ban in soccer.

When cars began burning in her neighborhood and barricades erupted over the incident, she learned from the country's highest administrative court that she could not''to play France's most popular sport, soccer, while wearing a hijab. On Thursday, Conseil d'\''état upheld the French soccer federation's ban on the wearing of explicit religious symbols, in keeping with the country's core principle of laicism.

The decision caused a flurry of emotions for Mama Diakite - shock, anger, disappointment. "I feel betrayed by a country that is supposed to be a country of human rights," said Mama Diakite, 25, who stopped playing soccer for a club team last season because of the rule.

The timing of the ruling and the riots following the death of the young man, Nahel Merzouk, was just a coincidence, and in many ways the cases are different. One''related to a tragic traffic stop that French officials condemned; the other has to do with a fierce debate about the visibility of Islam in French society. But both concern longstanding issues of identity and inclusion in France.