Across France, the phrase "Bismillah, c'est les ténèbres" has appeared on placards at demonstrations, posters and social media, becoming an unlikely rallying cry for a nationwide protest movement.
The phrase, which means "in the name of God, it's the darkness", makes little sense on its own, but has become a symbol of the generational divide between young protesters and the French authorities, as well as a way of mocking racial stereotypes held by police.
"Bismillah, c'est les ténèbres", which combines French and Arabic, appears to have originated on Snapchat, where someone attempted to join a private group of students organising protests and school blockades.
The message, sent under names including Mamadou and Abdellah and accompanied by Algerian flag emojis, used an awkward mixture of French slang and Arabic expressions commonly used by young people in France.
Students suspected the messages came from undercover police officers unsuccessfully attempting to infiltrate their protest groups by imitating the language of young French people.
Screenshots of the messages began circulating on social media in early October, and student protesters quickly adopted the phrase as a mocking slogan of resistance.
The slogan ridicules what protesters see as the authorities' racial stereotyping of young people, particularly those of Arab and African descent, and their failure to understand the generation leading the demonstrations.
"No young person talks like that," Sabrine Kharbach, a spokeswoman for a French student union, told The New York Times.
"Young people have reclaimed this phrase to point out that attempts to monitor and infiltrate their movements do not go unnoticed, and to assert their ability to organise in spite of them," she added.
Another student, Phèdre Quémener, said the phrase had become a national joke because it was "such a terrible impersonation of a young person".
"This is seen as an example of racism because it implies that the people who are going to vandalize property are Arab," she added.
Students across France have been protesting since September, demanding better conditions in schools and universities. The demonstrations have since grown into a wider movement involving parents, teachers, trade unions and other groups protesting against rising living costs and inequality.
The protesters are calling for smaller class sizes, more teachers, shorter school days and improvements to deteriorating school facilities.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across France over the weekend in the largest mobilisation since the protests began.
In response to the unrest, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu pledged on Tuesday that curfews would be imposed where necessary.
Protests have largely been peaceful, but some have descended into violence, with fires, looting and attacks on school buildings reported across the country.
According to government figures, at least 24 schools have been set alight or ransacked, while roughly 8,000 people have been arrested.
French police have responded forcefully to demonstrations, using tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters, many of whom are children. This response has further inflamed tensions.
France's police watchdog, the IGPN, is investigating at least 34 allegations of police misconduct since the protests began, including a case involving a 14-year-old boy who was severely injured by a tear-gas grenade fired at close range.
Rights group Amnesty International has condemned the police response and urged authorities to de-escalate tensions without the use of excessive force.
French police had already faced accusations of targeting Black and Arab young people before the recent outbreak of protests.
In June, Human Rights Watch reported that French police disproportionately targeted Black and Arab young people with fines, identity checks and searches.
The far right in France and beyond has sought to blame immigrant and Muslim students for the unrest, despite the protesters coming from a wide range of religious and ethnic backgrounds.
British far-right activist Tommy Robinson shared a video of riot police in Paris, blaming a "green/islamic unholy alliance" for supposedly destroying the French capital in a post on X.
However, the footage Robinson shared was not from the current protests and had been circulating online since 2022.
US President Donald Trump also weighed in on the unrest, claiming on his Truth Social platform that migrants had taken over France.
The slogan has since spread beyond France, appearing at demonstrations in Belgium, Germany and Italy, while Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg repeated it in a video expressing solidarity with the student movement.
"Bismillah, c'est les ténèbres" has become more than a viral joke, mocking far-right stereotypes of Muslims in France and the racial prejudices of the police, while serving as a rallying cry for a generation increasingly frustrated with the authorities.