PARIS — In Milwaukee or Chicago, it is common to find block parties serving beer and brats. In Paris, street parties may feature wine as well as assorted alcohol along with sausage and cheese—but times are changing. The Associated Press reports French police have banned a street party in Paris whose organizers planned to serve alcohol and pork-based sausage in what has become a heavily Muslim Paris neighborhood.

On June 15, police said the party, called "Sausage and booze," was banned because some persons could view it as a provocation in the Goutte-d'Or neighborhood of northern Paris, where Muslims pray on the streets on Fridays because there are not enough mosques. Alcohol and pork are banned in Islam.


Organizers said they were organizing Friday's party to protest Islam's encroachment on traditional French values in the neighborhood. The party was backed by several extreme-right associations. Muslim groups had announced a counterparty serving halal food.