Acts of Terrorism Rise Against Muslims in France

Date: 12 April 2021 - 21:34

News ID: ۸۹۱۱۶

PARIS (Dispatches) -- A second mosque in France has been attacked ahead of the holy month of Ramadan days after the French Senate approved an amendment to another Islamophobic bill by the lower House, sparking fierce outrage on social media outlets.
Vandals defaced the walls of Avicenna Islamic Cultural Center in the northwestern city of Rennes with Islamophobic graffiti, local officials declared just days after the Arrahma mosque in the western city of Nantes was set on fire on Thursday destroying its main door.
A caretaker and members of the local Muslim community in Rennes discovered the graffiti early Sunday on the walls of the Islamic center, which included tags insulting Islam and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), as well as references to resuming the Crusades and a call for Catholicism to be made the state religion.
Also on Friday, a 24-year-old "neo-Nazi” was charged for making threats against a mosque in the city of Le Mans -- also in western France, local media reported.
The wave of anti-Islam incidents came amid what many Muslims in the European country have described as surging hostility against their community, incited by the French government’s increasing Islamophobic policies that seek to vilify Islam and dictate to Muslim residents and institutions how to practice their religion.
The attacks also coincided with France’s latest legislative move to ban the wearing of hijab in public by Muslim girls under the age of 18, drawing fierce condemnation on social media platforms with widespread use of the hashtag #HandsOffMyHijab.
The French Senate’s move against the hijab – a widely diverse headdress worn by practicing Muslim women – came last Wednesday as part of a persisting push by Paris

to impose a so-called "anti-separatism” law that purportedly aims to reinforce the country’s secular system.
Reacting to the latest attacks on mosques across France, president of the National Observatory Against Islamophobia, Abdallah Zekri, denounced the current anti-Islam climate in a country that preaches democracy and freedom of religion.
"Unfortunately, the declarations of certain politicians are only making things worse,” he said as quoted by AFP.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin condemned the defacing of the Islamic center as "unacceptable” and ordered law enforcement agencies to increase vigilance around Muslim places of worship in the country.
"The anti-Muslim inscriptions that have been inscribed on this cultural and religious center are unacceptable. Freedom of worship in France is a fundamental freedom,” Darmanin claimed during a visit to the Avicenna mosque in Rennes.
This is while Darmanin -- a conservative in President Emmanuel Macron’s government -- is the main sponsor of legislation passing through parliament that is allegedly designed to challenge what it portrays as encroaching fundamentalism that undermines French values.
France follows a strict form of secularism -- known as "laicité” – purportedly aimed at separating religion and public life, despite its insistence on freedom of religion.
The French Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM) expressed concerns in a statement that the incident against the Islamic center in Rennes occurred two days after the arson attack on the mosque in Nantes as well as death threats against a prominent female Muslim journalist.
It further blamed the upsurge in anti-Muslim acts on the ongoing debates around a current piece of legislation "indiscriminately targeting” the Muslim community, insisting that such political debates "have unfortunately served as forums for haters of all stripes.”
French Muslim journalist Nadiya Lazzouni who has been critical of the government’s growing Islamophobia campaign in the past year appealed to President Macron for protection after receiving death threats.
Lazzouni, who gained popularity by debating conservative French politicians on TV and arguing against the ban on hijab, told the BFM TV channel she was in contact with Macron’s administration and had asked him for protection, noting that she was informed by a presidential security adviser that the authorities were treating the situation "very seriously” and "an investigation has been launched in order to assess the degree of the threats.”
Lazzouni shared a photo on social media of a handwritten letter she said had been sent to her, containing insults and threats of putting "a bullet in neck.”