Report: Hate Crimes Against Muslims in France Increased by 223% in 2015

Rabat – Hate crimes against Muslims in France more than doubled from 2014 to 2015, according to a new report by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH).

The governmental agency’s annual report measures France’s progress in its ideological war against racism, antisemitism and xenophobia by reviewing figures from the country’s ministry of the interior on criminal acts.

The latest edition, released on Monday, said Islamophobic attacks rose from 133 incidents in 2014 to 429 in 2015 – a 223 percent increase.

“For the Muslims of France, the year 2015 was particularly difficult,” the report said. “The Jihadist attacks favored the amalgamation between Islam and radical Islam….as several mayors, including Roanne and Belfort, spoke to accommodate primarily Christian refugees.”

The attacks mentioned in the report refer to the string of shootings and bombings in Paris last November that claimed the lives of over 130 people. They have been claimed by the so-called “Islamic State.”

The spike in anti-Muslim attacks in France last year “confirmed” an upward trend over the past four years; despite a 41 percent decline in Islamophobic crimes in 2014, the agency observed an increase of 30 percent in 2011, 28 percent in 2012 and 11.3 percent in 2013.

The CNCDH added that the scale of violence against Muslims has also increased over the past few years. More recent attacks involved live ammunition, grenade throwing and arson.

Anti-semitic acts decreased by 5.1 percent in France from 2014 (851) to 2015 (808), while other forms of hate crimes experienced a 17.5 percent increase over the same time period (678 in 2014 to 797 in 2015), the report noted.

The agency said the figures presented in the report cannot be considered representative of the entire French public, as hate crimes are generally committed by “particularly active violent minorities.” The same can be said about the minority of Muslims who misguidedly follow the path of terrorism, according to defenders of the Islamic faith and its believers.