The association in charge of the construction of the Grand Mosque in Marseille is relieved. On Wednesday 21 December the Marseille administrative appeal court rejected two appeals filed by elected representatives of the National Front and MNR (National Republican Movement) to overturn a decision by the municipal council in July 2007 authorising the establishment of a large mosque in the city with a long lease of 50 years on a plot of 8,600 square metres.

The court noted that “the constitutional principle of secularism, which involves the neutrality of the state and local authorities of the Republic and the legal treatment of different faiths, does not, in itself, prohibit the granting (…) of a long-term administrative lease in order to build a place of worship open to the public.”

It also took the view that the decision does not violate the 1905 law on separation of church and state and rejected the argument that the rent is too low (€24,000 per year).

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TOURVES, France — They feasted in the verdant back country of picture-postcard Provence, the delight of tourists and the pride of France.

But it was no ordinary country idyll. The extreme right Bloc Identitaire, or Identity Bloc, was lashing out at Islam while dining on pork roast and local wine – off limits to practicing Muslims.

The group, an emerging force on France’s far-right scene, likens Muslim immigrants to invaders threatening the identity of the French heartland and menacing European civilization. The movement – with a wild pig as its logo – is gaining traction through its blend of Islam-bashing and romanticizing of French rural culture.

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La Dépêche reports that racist graffiti and Nazi symbols were daubed in red paint on the walls of the Louis-Nicolas-Vauquelin secondary school in Toulouse last weekend. The slogans “Arabs out of France”, “Arabs sod off” and “Islam get out” were accompanied by swastikas and other Nazi signs such as 88 (i.e. Heil Hitler).

Via Islam in Europe

A 43-year-old civil servant, the local leader of the Bloc identitaire who works at the Angers prefecture, has appeared in court on Monday charged with obstructing the council.

On 8 April he provided pigs’ masks to a group of young Bloc identitaire activists. They disrupted the Angers city council, shouting “Not a penny for the mosque”. They then handed out leaflets to councillors on which it was written that Anjou was not “a land of Islam”.

Shocked by this intervention, the mayor had to suspend the council proceedings and filed a complaint. A civil party at trial, the mayor of Angers claimed a symbolic €1.

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Sud Ouest reports that when a member of staff arrived at the mosque in Villeneuve-sur-Lot in south west France on Saturday morning they found that the slogan “Islam out of Europe” had been daubed on the walls in black paint along with swastikas and “88” (Nazi code for “Heil Hitler”). A wooden pallet had been set on fire against the front door but had only caused minor damage. Police also discovered a bottle thought to contain a fire accelerant.

A report by Ajib (via Islam in Europe) points out that the graffiti and arson at Villeneuve-sur-Lot is the latest in a series of criminal attacks on French mosques. Earlier this month the mosque in Montbéliard was the target of an arson attack that caused serious damage. A few days before, on the day of Eid al-Adha, Muslims in Saint-Armand-les-Eaux in the département du Nord were shocked to discover racist graffiti on the door of their mosque.

In a statement condemning the attack in Villeneuve-sur-Lot the Conseil Francais du Culte Musulman reiterates its call for a parliamentary inquiry into the rise of anti-Muslim hatred in France.