French student protesters adopt new slogan
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The gist
Hundreds of thousands marched across France this past weekend in support of student protesters, many carrying signs reading "Bismillah, c'est les ténèbres."
The nonsensical phrase has become shorthand for a generational divide, and the movement has spread to Belgium and Italy.
Background
The movement began with pupils protesting lackluster school resources, with demands including more teachers, repairs to school buildings and an end to Parcoursup, the online platform introduced in 2018 to determine where pupils go after secondary school, which pupils say leads to unfair selection. Media mostly cite initial protests at the Lycée Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry in the Parisian banlieue of Créteil as the trigger. Pundits and activists have begun calling the movement "gilets jeunes" (young vests), a reference to the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests of 2018-20. The slogan "Bismillah, c'est les ténèbres" ("In the name of God, it's the darkness") spread after a screenshot of a Snapchat conversation circulated while students used the app to organize school blockades.
How it unfolded
- late August 2026Pupils at schools in the French overseas territories of Guyana and Mayotte began protesting, according to some pundits.
- mid-September 2026Initial protests at the Lycée Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry in the Parisian banlieue of Créteil are mostly cited by media as the trigger for the movement.
- early October 2026A screenshot of a Snapchat conversation began circulating while students were using the app to organize school blockades.
- Oct 16, 2026A second-year École Boulle student named Paco said, "we're fighting for our future"; Newsfire published a report on the slogan.
- Oct 17, 2026Nationwide demonstrations in Paris; protesters scaled sculptor Léopold Morice's Marianne at the Place de la République and dressed her in a yellow vest bearing the slogan "2026, the police mutilates high-schoolers."
- Oct 18, 2026Zee News published an explainer on the phrase; Middle East Forum published its article referencing the slogan.
- Oct 19, 2026Euronews and The Art Newspaper published pieces on the protests and slogan.
- Oct 20, 2026The New York Times reported that hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across France "this past weekend" in support of student protesters, many displaying "Bismillah, c'est les ténèbres" on cardboard signs.
Who’s saying what
- Analysts
- The New York Times says the phrase "doesn't make much sense" but is seen as shorthand for a generational divide.
- Students
- Students say the phrase caught on precisely because it is nonsensical, mocking someone trying, and failing, to sound like them.
- Critics
- Critics say the phrase makes inappropriate use of an Islamic expression.
- Caution
- Maral Salmassi of the Berlin-based Zera Institute, which campaigns against extremism and anti-Semitism, said: "In Iran, it took two years to descend into complete chaos. We saw the same symbols, the same flags and heard exactly the same slogans. Get ready."
Still unverified
Students believe the Snapchat message came from an undercover police officer. The New York Times says the sentence "seems to have first been used" on Snapchat by someone seeking entry to a private chat room, and that the writer "seems to have sent" the message multiple times under different profiles using Arab names like Mamadou and Abdellah and accounts displaying Algerian flag emojis.