A new report by a leading anti-racism observatory in France states that French Muslims have become the target of a marked increase in Islamophobic violence and actions -- as well as incendiary statements by politicians -- over the last two years, the France 24 website reports today (November 21, 2012).
The number of racist acts against Muslims in France is increasing "alarmingly," according to the country's National Observatory of Islamophobia, whose president has called for overt Islamophobia to be taken as seriously as anti-Semitism, which is a criminal offense in France.
According to the Observatory report -- which claims to fight "all forms of racism and xenophobia" -- "in 2011 the number of anti-Muslim attacks was up 34% on the previous year....but what is happening in 2012 is alarming. Between January and the end of October there were 175 reported Islamophobic acts -- a 42% increase compared with the same period in 2011."
The Observatory's President Abdallah Zekri said that the huge rise in anti-Muslim sentiment in France could be partly explained by "the tense socio-political atmosphere in France being driven by a resurgence of the far right."
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