Police officers and French army soldiers patrol Rue des Rosiers street, in Paris, Monday Jan. 12, 2015. Photo: Remy de la Mauviniere/AP
The number of anti-Muslim incidents in France has soared since attacks in Paris earlier this month, with 128 such acts registered over two weeks, almost the same amount as all 2014, a watchdog said Friday.
The National Observatory Against Islamophobia said 33 acts against mosques in particular and 95 threats had been reported to authorities since the January 7-9 shooting spree by three French jihadists that killed 17, compared to a total of 133 such incidents in 2014.
The number of anti-Muslim incidents in 2014 had dropped by 41 percent from the previous year, according to the watchdog.
“But these figures do not reflect reality, as many Muslims don’t want to systematically file a complaint when they are victims of xenophobic acts, convinced that there will be no follow-up, which is unfortunately often the case,” the observatory said.
The tally for the two weeks since January 7 do not include incidents in Paris and its surrounding region, where police have yet to release their figures.
On January 20, the observatory’s president, Abdallah Zekri had condemned the “acts of hatred towards French people of the Muslim faith, the immense majority of whom respect the values of the Republic and secularism.”
“This situation is unacceptable and we’re asking the authorities to go beyond the reassuring speeches and act to put an end to this scourge,” he said.
Growing anti-Muslim sentiment has reinforced fears that France, home to an estimated six million Muslims, and other European Union countries will witness an increase in the popularity of already prominent far-right political movements and their Islamophobic discourse.
Several mosques have been attacked since the three French jihadists attacked satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket. In several towns shots have been fired at mosques and racist slogans daubed on their walls. In Corsica, a pig’s head was hung on the door of a prayer hall.
Last week, 47-year-old French Muslim Mohammed al-Makouli was killed in southern France by one of his neighbors, who shouted “I am your god, I am your Islam” before stabbing Makouli 17 times.
Makouli’s 31-year-old partner tried to save him, and suffered wounds to her hands, before fleeing with their young child to call the police, officials said. French authorities were investigating the case to determine whether it constituted an Islamophobic act.
French President Francois Hollande and his government have repeatedly warned against tarring all Muslims with the extremist brush.
In a speech, Hollande reiterated that “Muslims are the main victims of terrorism.”
The Committee against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) said that anti-Muslim attacks and insults have risen steadily in France in recent years “as some politicians and media increasingly present Islam as a problem for French society.”
Some prominent political figures have defied calls for unity, with remarks seen as fanning anti-Muslim sentiment.
A senior member of the far-right National Front (FN) representing the party in the European Parliament, Aymeric Chauprade, declared in a video last week that France was “at war with some Muslims.”
“We’re told a majority of Muslims are peaceful. But a majority of Germans were also (peaceful) before 1933 and national socialism,” he said.
FN leader Marine Le Pen, who has joined mainstream political parties in warning against confusing Islam and fundamentalism, distanced herself from Chauprade’s remarks.
While some say radical Islamists are the fruit of France’s foreign policies, many argue that extremism has fed upon the French government’s inability to enact structural, social and economic reforms that ensure the participation of citizens from different ethnic and religious backgrounds in society.