Roubaix was long notorious for being France’s poorest town, reports The Telegraph.
Now it is facing the unflattering accolade of “Afghanistan two hours from Paris” after a TV documentary depicted the town and its Right-wing mayor as falling under the growing sway of radical Islam.
“Why Roubaix? Why hit a town when it’s down?” said Thierry Lefevbre, 58, a wine merchant whose well-stocked cellar includes not just reds and whites from around France but an impressive array of Scotch whisky and a map to help locate the bottles.
Mr Lefevbre said he had lived and worked in the town, near Lille in northern France, all his life “and when I see that, it makes my blood boil”.
His shop sits in the middle of rue de Lannoy, a street at the heart of the controversial report.
Here, journalists from the Zone Interdite documentary, which aired on private channel M6, secretly filmed inside a shop selling faceless dolls for Muslims who believe that facial features on toys are anti-Islamic.
Another shop offered a book on advice for Muslim newlyweds that told women to obey their husbands. A third sold a book with fatwas for women, including one apparently condoning punishment by stoning.