Hate crimes against Muslims and Jews soar in France

Hate crimes against Muslims in France have tripled since the terrorist attacks against Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket in January, according to official figures.

Anti-semitic offences also doubled in the first five months of 2015.

More than 400 incidents of an "Islamophobic" nature, including assaults, harassment and criminal damage, were reported to the authorities in 2015, up from 133 in the previous year.

From January to May, 508 antisemitic crimes were recorded, a rise of 84 per cent compared to the same months in 2014. Figures for the full year are still being compiled.

Gilbert Clavreul, the head of Dilcra, a body that coordinates government action against racism and anti-semitism, said: “This is a spectacular and very worrying development, which is explained mainly by the surge in (anti-Muslim) acts following the January attacks.”

After those events, numerous mosques and prayer halls were attacked, daubed with graffiti or set on fire, and pigs’ heads were hurled into several.

Police or soldiers now guard about 1,000 of France’s 2,500 mosques. There are fears of a further backlash against Muslims after 130 people were massacred in Paris last month in coordinated attacks claimed by Isil.

Abdallah Zekri, who runs a unit of the Central Council of Muslims of France that monitors Islamophobia, said women wearing headscarves were being singled out for harassment.

“Some have had their scarves torn off, one was violently beaten,” said Mr Zekri. People are very worried in the religious community.” It is illegal to wear the full-face veil in public in France.

Mr Zekri said about 15 per cent of Muslims who were attacked or harassed never report the incidents to the police “because they’ve got the idea that it serves no purpose”.

His home in the southern city of Nimes was sprayed with racist graffiti and swastikas two years ago, and he said the police report had not led to any arrests.

In a recent outbreak of racial tension, anti-immigrant demonstrations erupted in Corsica last weekend after reports that firemen and police were lured into a largely immigrant area and then ambushed by men wielding iron bars and baseball bats. A police officer was injured.

Most French voters support a government plan to pass a new law to allow dual nationals convicted of terrorist crimes to be stripped of their French citizenship, according to opinion polls.

In another phenomenon being linked with the terror threat, the birth rate in France is reported to have fallen sharply after the January attacks.

Maternity hospitals in different parts of the country say they have experienced a decrease of about 10 per cent, although official figures show only 3 per cent, Europe 1 radio reported.

Jean-Loup Durousset of Natecia, France’s second largest maternity clinic, in Lyon, said: “Young women who were shocked by the events at the start of the year have undoubtedly abandoned or postponed plans to get pregnant.”

His clinic has seen a 10 per cent fall, as have others in the east and south of the country. France offers generous state benefits for children and has a higher birth rate than most of its European neighbours.

“In Alsace, the fall is 10 per cent in private establishments, 7 per cent in public hospitals,” said Dr Durousset. "It’s the same thing in the Provence-Alps-Riviera region, and some establishments have reported falls of 15 per cent.”