A mosque at Val-de-Reuil in Normandy in north-western France was sprayed with far-right graffiti last Wednesday night. Slogans included “Anti-Islam”, “Long live the FN” and “France, love it or leave it”. As the Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France points out, these days every week brings new acts of Islamophobic vandalism.
France 3 reports that last Friday night a new mosque at Contrexéville in north-east France was sprayed with swastikas, along with slogans against Islam and in support of the far-right Front National and its leader Marine Le Pen. The report notes that the As-Salam de Tomblaine mosque, also in the north-east, was similarly targeted by fascists last month. Vosges Matin adds that the graffiti in Contrexéville included homophobic abuse.
The Guardian reports that French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo will this week release a special edition illustrated biography of the prophet Muhammad.
Its editor, Stéphane Charbonnier, told Agence France-Presse that the Life of Muhammad would be “perfectly halal” because it was a compilation of all that had been written about the prophet in the past by Muslim writers and Charlie Hebdo had “simply put it into images”.
As the Guardian points out: “Charlie Hebdo, which must sell 30,000 issues of its weekly magazine from news-stands to keep afloat, has routinely seen sales double or magazines sell out each time it has run controversial cartoons of Muhammad.”
Liberal leadership contender Justin Trudeau told an Islamic conference Saturday that groups who attacked his decision to attend the gathering only work to divide Canadians.
Trudeau told a crowd of thousands at the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference in Toronto that his critics attempted to tap into “fears and prejudices” that sap the acceptance of others.
“It is short-sighted to pit groups of Canadians against one another. It may make some feel good for a little while, or even work politically in the short term, but it is no way to build a country,” Trudeau said in a keynote address. “It is not who we are.”
Trudeau was criticized earlier this month by some Jewish groups and media outlets for agreeing to address the conference because of allegations of a link between one of its sponsors, IRFAN-Canada, and the militant group Hamas.
The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France reports that on Thursday-Friday night four swastikas along with racist slogans riddled with misspellings were sprayed on the wall of the As-Salam de Tomblaine mosque in the Lorraine region of north-east France. (The slogan “Bougnoulle de mourt” would appear to mean something like “death to wogs”.)
The CCIF notes that only a few months ago the mosque at Vandoeuvre, five kilometres from Tomblaine, was also the target of a graffiti attack, although in that case the graffiti were of Kahanist rather than Nazi inspiration.
See also ICI-C-NANCY, 21 December 2012
The International Journal of Intercultural Relations has published the results of research by Jonas R. Kunst, David L. Sam and Pål Ulleberg into Muslims’ perceptions of Islamophobia. The article, “Perceived islamophobia: Scale development and validation”, can be consulted here.
On Tuesday 11 December six swastikas were found on the walls of the mosque in the Penhars neighbourhood of Quimper, in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-west France, the Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France reports.
The CCIF points out that this is not the first time that the mosque has suffered such acts of vandalism. In September 2006 similar graffiti were found, and the mosque was the victim of an attempted arson attack.
See also Ouest-France, 13 December 2012
My article from the current issue of Labour Briefing.
Fait-religieux reports that an Ahmadiyya mosque at Épernay in northern France which was vandalised by fascists last month has received a letter filled with racist slurs and abuse. It calls for “bougnoules” (wogs) to be thrown out of France just like the French were thrown out of Algeria and threatens to return to Épernay for a further attack on the mosque.
