The report goes on to portray the acts of violence that have been committed against Islam. According to the authors, they are hard to number since the Ministry of the Interior has never made such discrimination a specific category. Nor are the facts related to discrimination listed by any community organizations, as is done regularly with anti-Semitic acts. However, the study does cite certain “actions,” such as anti-Muslim tracts distributed by the far-right, attempted torching of places of worship, verbal or physical violence aimed at public figures linked to Islam, anti-Muslim graffiti and, last but not least, statements made by some celebrities in public.

While awaiting the 2003 statistics, the study lists several examples of serious violence committed in 2002: Molotov cocktails thrown at the mosques of Mericourt (in the Pas-de-Calais region) and Chalons (in the Marne region), on April 25 and 27, and on March 24 against the Ecaudin mosque (in the Rhone region); a letter bomb was sent to an association seated at the Perpignan mosque (in the Pyrenees-Orientales), on April 9; an Islamic religious sculpture was profaned in Lyon, on April 24; attempted torching of a place of worship in Rillieux-la-Pape (Rhone), on December 27; anonymous tracts distributed during the presidential campaign [held in April 2002 which had set far-right racist candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen against incumbent president Chirac].

As for 2003, three facts can be pointed to: profaned tombs in the Haut-Rhin region in July, torching of a place of worship at Nancy, and profanation of an Islamic square in the Meuse region in March. These are only examples that, in the CNCDH’s view, “fall well under the real number [of racist acts committed against Islam],” especially as far as verbal insults and lighter forms of violence is concerned.

The report brings attention to how certain French Internet sites broadcast explicitly racist propaganda toward Islam. It also highlights speeches made by elected officials, foremost of which is the mayor of Nice, Jacques Peyrat, for whom “mosques cannot be conceived of as existing within a secular Republic,” and notes the publicly manifested reticence every time a mosque is built in France. The CNCDH has denounced the “media-inspired amalgams” that explain Islamist terrorism by “singling out Islam as its sole ideological cause.” Sensationalist images, headlines and commentary, “demagogic and paranoiac in tone,” feed “conspiracy fantasies” and have multiplied over the last few months in the media. The study makes special mention of statements made by Claude Imbert, a columnist from the weekly Le Point, who recently declared himself an “Islamophobe” (see Le Monde, November 5).

Ultimately, the CNCDH considers such hostility towards Islam as “little acknowledged and feebly fought against.” It recommends up-grading the course content taught in religion classes at both elementary and high schools, and “is favorable to having places of worship be made more visible.” Most of all, the CNCDH stresses the importance of “waging a strong public policy battle against all types of racial discrimination.”