Category Archives: France

Graffiti attack on mosque at Graulhet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France reports that, following the graffiti attack at Meximieux a week earlier, a second mosque was desecrated this weekend – at Graulhet in the Tarn department in southern France. Graffiti were found on the wall of the Nour Al-Mouhammadi mosque, including a drawing of a pig’s head and the slogan “Arabs out”.

An investigation has been opened and government minister Manuel Valls has issued a statement condemning the attack. The CCIF, however, points out that they have recorded 13 attacks on French mosques so far this year, all of which remain “under investigation”, without the perpetrators having been identified. The CCIF argues that words are not enough and concrete results are needed.

Anti-Muslim graffiti attack in Meximieux

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Meximieux fascist graffiti

The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France reports that they have been informed by a Muslim cultural association at Meximieux in eastern France that the community has been subjected to a graffiti attack.

Not only was their mosque desecrated but a fascist symbol was spray-painted on the wall of the block of flats where the president of the association lives.

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Vandals desecrate Muslim graves in Paris suburb

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vitry-sur-Seine cemetery

The graves of a cemetery in the Val-de-Marne suburb of the French capital were found destroyed on Sunday. It is reported that the marble headstones were broken and ornaments thrown about.

President of the Observatory against Islamophobia Abdellah Zekri said, “I condemn the cowardice of these individuals who attack cemeteries, and dead people. We demand that the authorities step in, in the midst of this unhealthy environment.”

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Wilders meets with Le Pen, proposes electoral alliance with other far-right parties

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert WildersAnti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders is looking to form an alliance with other similarly-minded parties, including France’s Front National, to fight next year’s European elections, the Volkskrant reports on Saturday.

Wilders, who leads the PVV in parliament, recently met Front National leader Marine Le Pen for lunch to discuss his ideas for a pan-European approach. “We think the same about 90% of things, perhaps more,” Wilders said in the Volkskrant interview. “We also have a lot of points of agreement in terms of immigration.”

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Berkeley conference adopts resolution condemning Islamophobia in France

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Berkeley Islamophobia conference 2013

Resolution of the 4th Annual International Conference on Islamophobia at UC-Berkeley in Support of French Muslims and Opposing Islamophobic Discourses in France

Whereas; for the last ten years, Islamophobia has increased in an alarming way all over the world.

Whereas; every year, the Annual International Conference on Islamophobia at UC-Berkeley confirms the global perverse and continuing problem of Islamophobia.

Whereas; France is one of the countries in the world where racism against Muslims has increased the most. In the name of secularism, women’s rights, the defense of Republican values, and the struggle against terrorism, Islamophobic discourses affect all spheres of the French society (politics, media, intellectual debates, economics, etc).

Whereas; the French state itself – the judicial, legislative and executive powers – from the higher to the bottom levels of the French public administration has become a promoter of Islamophobia. The March 2004 law against the veil is at the heart of public legitimization of discriminatory practices against Muslims.

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Why do the French hate the hijab?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In light of the backlash that followed the recent court ruling in favour of Fatima Afif’s right to wear a headscarf at work, Marie Dhumieres asks what it is that provokes such hysteria over the hijab among the non-Muslim population of France.

She concludes: “French should maybe take some time to think about why they really care so much, and maybe forget for a second what they believe ‘the hijab’ represents and think about the women under them. For example, about how humiliating it might be for a mother to be banned from accompanying her child’s class on a school trip because her head is covered. Because extremism is indeed dangerous, but it goes both ways.”

Independent,16 April 2013

Racist and Nazi graffiti at French mosque site

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Coulommiers mosque graffitiThe building site of a future mosque in the city of Coulommiers, east of Paris, was defaced with racist graffiti – including Nazi swastikas – over the weekend.

“A pig’s head and Nazi tags were found inside the site,” Abdallah Zekri, president of France’s Observatory of Islamophobia told the AFP news agency.

“It’s the same thing every time,” Zekri said of the act of vandalism, calling for harder sanctions on those found guilty of racially-motivated crimes.

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