France’s Muslim leaders are raising the alarm over a rise in attacks on their community since Islamist extremists killed 17 people in Paris last month. Figures this week revealed that 147 acts were committed against Muslims between January 7 — when gunmen killed 12 people at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly publication — and the end of the month, reports The Financial Times.
The number, compiled by an office of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), the de facto representative of French Muslims before the government, is higher than the total figure of anti-Muslim incidents recorded in 2014 — and does not include the latest statistics for Paris and surrounding areas.
Abdallah Zekri, of the CFCM, warned that a climate of “generalised hysteria” towards the Muslim population had gripped France since last month’s attacks. “We must put an end to the stigmatisation,” he told the AFP news agency.
It is not only France’s Muslims who feel threatened. Its Jewish community, the largest in Europe with an estimated 500,000 members, has long complained of discrimination. Rising attacks — Jewish organisations say the number of anti-Semitic acts doubled last year compared with 2013 — have provoked an unprecedented wave of migration to Israel.
In Paris, every synagogue is now guarded by heavily armed soldiers — part of the government’s emergency response plan that has seen 10,500 soldiers deployed across the country. On Tuesday, a man armed with a knife attacked soldiers who were guarding a Jewish community centre in Nice.
For many French citizens, the country has changed radically since the extremist attacks.