Racist swastikas were daubed on the outer wall of the Paris mosque.

By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent

PARIS, February 25, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – With Islamophobia on the rise in France, mosques are facing major difficulties, ranging from official obstacles blocking plans to build new mosques, racist attacks against worship places, to the refusal of insurance companies to signing contracts to provide services to mosques.

Such Islamophobic acts prompted leaders of the Muslim minority in France to press for providing more protection for the Muslim worship places in the European country.

“Attacks against mosques in France require the French authorities to provide more protection for mosques and imams," Daw Meskine, Secretary General of the French council for imams, told IslamOnline.net Thursday, February 24.

The call followed a series of racist attacks against Islamic places of worship in France.

On February 22, racist swastikas were daubed on the outer wall of the Paris mosque, the oldest in the country, with graffiti calling for the ouster of the Muslim minority from France.

The attack, the first against the Paris mosque, drew a strong condemnation from leaders of the Muslim minority as well as senior French officials.

Dalil Boubaker, president of the French Council for the Muslim Religion, saw the attack as demonstrating the rising Islamophobia in the country.

“This intolerable act of Islamophobia is a worrying symptom in the capital, particularly affecting the Paris Mosque, whose words and well-known tolerance could not justify such hatred and such racist and Islamophobic intolerance,” Boubakeur was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Arbitrary Move

Even plans to construct new mosques in the European country are also facing several obstacles. These range from official refusal to grant licenses under claims of inconvenience with the city architecture, to expressing doubts over the plans’ advocates.

As a case in point, advocates of a project to build a mosque in the Paris suburban city of Trappes came under a severe media campaign for claims of inciting extremism.

Mosques known for their moderate role in the society have also been subject to such aggressive media campaigns.

Leaders and those in charge of Al-Dawa mosque were accused by the French media of inciting extremism and recruiting groups of French Muslims to fight against US occupation forces in Iraq.

Mosques, however, were not the only target of racist attacks. Islamic associations in France also came under various types of Islamophobic acts.

As a case in point, the Credit Agricole bank has taken a decision to close an account of the Al-Kahf Association for no “valid” reasons.

The bank claimed that its move was taken as it rejects to “engage in religious projects”.

The decision prompted the association to file a lawsuit against the bank’s arbitrary step on closing the account, which was designed to finance the construction of a mosque in the Creteil area, south-west Paris.

Insurance Companies

The increasing racist attacks against mosques in France prompted some insurance companies to refuse signing insurance contracts against attacks with Islamic places.

The companies say mosques are “highly sensitive places that come under repeated attacks, which would inflict major losses on these companies.

An official in the French Maaf company told IOL that it refuses to sign insurance contracts with Islamic places under claims that it (the company) doesn't engage in dealings with religious institutions.

She, however, said that the company can sign contracts with officials of the institutions in charge of the mosques.

However, Al-Tuhami Ebrez, chairman of the Union of Islamic Organizations in France (UOIF), downplayed media reports on the insurance companies' refusal to sign contracts with mosques.

“Some mosques are not covered by the insurance umbrella, however, the majority of mosques in France are.”

But he urged more protection for mosques in the country, similar to the kind of protection offered for religious places of other faiths.

Former French Interior Minister and chairman of the ruling Gathering for the Popular Front, Nicolas Sarkozy, has repeatedly called for providing protection for the Muslim worship places in France.

There are at least 1554 mosques in France, a majority of whom are either underground rooms or private places of worship in public places and squares.

France is home to around six million Muslims, half of them are of Arab origin.