[1][2][3] He was raised as a Muslim, and he attended both French and Islamic schools as Zawiyet El Hamel.

His first novel, Le mouchoir, was turned down fourteen times before it was published by L'Harmattan in 1987.

[3] His 2006 play, Terre sainte, received a good review from Le Figaro when it was performed in Avignon in 2013.

[3] He was also a contributor to Actuel, a French magazine, and he produced Les Chemins de la connaissance on France Culture.

[7] In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shooting of 7 January 2015, he wrote a Facebook post relating remarks voiced by teenagers from Val-de-Marne against Charlie Hebdo; however, he was unable to explain where he had heard them specifically, leading Marianne and other media outlets to wonder if he had made them up.