Hundreds of French nationalists have demonstrated in Paris against Islamist extremism, chanting the French anthem and saying the religion has no place in the country.
Protester Romain Cyiril says, “France was always a welcoming country, but for the first time we have to deal with a religion which can’t and doesn’t want to integrate itself.”
LOURDES — Leading bishops have voiced alarm at a rise in anti-Islamic sentiment in France and admitted that hardening attitudes within the Roman Catholic church are fuelling the trend.
In comments that will add to pressure on President François Hollande to respond to demands from France’s large Muslim community to speak out on the issue, the Bishop of Angoulême, Claude Dagens, said he was profoundly concerned by recent developments.
“It is with much pain that I notice the emergence of a Catholic Islamophobia, in the same way that there has been a Catholic anti-semitism for centuries,” Dagens told AFP in an interview on the sidelines of an assembly of French bishops here.
French Muslim leaders have appealed to President François Hollande come out as strongly against Islamophobia as he has against anti-Semitism. They estimate that the number of anti-Muslim acts in France rose 34 per cent last year.
Leaders of the Muslim umbrella body, the CFCM, which was set up by former president Nicolas Sarkozy when he was interior minister, met Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Thursday to call for action against what they claim is a rise in Islamophobia.
They called on Hollande to condemn it in a “solemn declaration”, similar to his call for the fight against anti-Semitism to become a “national cause”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAAoGLAKshI&feature=share&list=UU5gtqdJOvhGdh-6WRO2CTpw
The Islamophobia Awareness Month will be hosting a series of events aiming to highlight and address issues surrounding anti-Muslim hatred. This event in East London saw the launch of the campaign that included organisations from different religious and political backgrounds.
When last week’s cover of normally stern French magazine Le Point appeared online, the consensus on social networks said it was a hoax. Le Point is no tabloid. It is a serious and well respected conservative magazine.
Running the headline: “Brazen Islam…in school cafeterias, hospitals, and swimming pools” the cover featured a niqab-clad woman arguing with a French policewoman. It had to be a joke, but sadly it wasn’t.
La Montagne reports that on Wednesday night three swastikas were painted on a disused building situated in the parking lot of the mosque at Thiers in central France. The graffiti was discovered by members of the Thiers Franco-Turkish association on Thursday morning shortly before Eid prayers. A complaint has been lodged with the police.
It has been reported that Muslims celebrating Eid-al-Adha at a mosque at Seynod in south-eastern France were subjected to racial abuse and threatened with a shotgun by a man who accused worshippers of occupying two parking spaces outside his business that were reserved for customers. Seynod’s Muslim community is currently using premises in an industrial estate while they wait for the construction of a purpose-built mosque, which has faced opposition from a residents’ association and local businesses.
The role of Islam in France was once again under the spotlight on Thursday after right-wing daily Le Figaro published the results of an opinion poll that suggested 43 percent of French people believe the religion is a “threat” to national identity.
Six out of ten French people believe the influence of Islam in France is “too big” and 43 percent see the religion as a “threat” to national identity, according to the results of an opinion poll published on Thursday.
The sensitive poll, which will likely cause ripples in a country home to Europe’s largest Muslim population, was carried out by Ifop polling institute for Le Figaro, which published the results under the headline “The image of Islam worsens in France“.
Discrimination, abuse and Islamophobia. France’s Muslim population reveal their experiences of bearing the brunt of anti-Muslim hate crimes in a new book published by the Islamic Human Rights Commission. The study looks into how France’s institutions, political culture and attitudes towards Islam have created a hostile and dangerous environment against Muslims.
In London, an event was held to address the growing concerns of Muslim demonization in Europe. Communities were encouraged to foster better understanding in order to counter the inflammatory propaganda against Islam.
France 3 reports that on Sunday morning a family at Pont-du-Château in Auvergne in central France found the walls of their house covered in Nazi graffiti. Of Algerian origin, the family has lived in the area for fifteen years.