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France: 3 mosques vandalized, Muslim group urges politicians to speak out Via AP : A leading French Muslim group says three mosques have been vandalized over the past week and is urging authorities to punish the perpetrators. The French Council of the Muslim Faith, or CFCM, said racist insults and Nazi slogans were scrawled on a mosque in the southeastern town of Tarascon and another in the eastern city of Strasbourg on Tuesday and Wednesday. It said the mosque in the southern town of Draguignan was vandalized May 17.  ( source )

France: Veil ban 'increased hostility towards Muslim women' Via Asian Image : New research shows that that there is a link between the banning of the veil in France and increased levels of hostility towards veiled Muslim women. The Research from the Department of Criminology at the University of Leicester suggests that the veil ban stigmatises veiled Muslim women as �criminals� and fosters Muslim �otherness�. Even if not explicitly inciting hate-motivated violence, the law in its application contributes to a climate of intolerance of Islam in the West.   ( source )

France: Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, The official "face" of the new French government. Via The Independent : Thirty years ago, a four-year-old Moroccan girl emigrated to France to join her father. Yesterday, she became the official "face" of the new French government. Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, 34, is the youngest member of the cabinet which assembled yesterday under the chairmanship of President Fran�ois Hollande. She is the Minister for Women's Affairs and will be the official spokeswoman for the government and, therefore, the mouthpiece for "Hollandism". (...) A married mother of twins, Ms Vallaud-Belkacem is a "non-practising Muslim". After winning scholarships to elite colleges, she calls herself a "pure product of the [egalitarianism] of the [French] Republic". She insisted yesterday, however, that she wanted to be judged on her abilities, not on her "triple symbolism" as a young female of North African origin. ( source )

France: Hollande's Algerian advisers Via The North Africa Journal : In Rabat, the Moroccan government showed no significant worries as Fran�ois Hollande was declared the winner of the Presidential race. However, we picked up some signs of concerns as usually Morocco finds a more open-door policy among France�s right wing leaders and lot less accommodating Socialists. (...) Also a point of concern for the Moroccans is the people who surround Fran�ois Hollande, in particular his high-powered political adviser Faouzi Lamdaoui, a native of the eastern Algerian city of Constantine. Read this associated analysis on the � Rise of North Africans in French Politics .�  Another person to watch in the Hollande circles is Kader Arif, a Member of the European Parliament for the south-west of France. He is a member of the Holland�s Socialist Party and sits on the European Parliament�s Committee on International Trade. A third source of influence is the young Razzy Hammadi who presided over the M...

France: 93% of Muslims voted for Hollande Via La Vie : According to a poll by OpinionWay and Fiducial for Le Figaro, 93% of Muslims voted for Hollande.  7% voted for Sarkozy.  The poll was conducted May 6th among 1000 voters. According to the polling agency, there are about 2 million Muslim voters.  59% of Muslims voted for Hollande in the first round.  23% voted for  Jean-Luc Melenchon (Left Front) and 7% voted for Fran�ois Bayrou (Democratic Movement).  Sarkozy got 4% of the Muslim vote in the first round.

France: Two elderly Muslims attacked on their way to morning prayers Via France Soir : Two elderly Muslims were beaten up on their way to the mosque in the northern town of Amiens. The attack occurred early Saturday morning, when the two victims, ages 70 and 71, were on their way to morning prayers.  They were accosted by two men with short haircuts who said they were part of the extreme right.  The men were admitted to the hospital with injuries to their legs and ribs.

France: Islam in election debate Hollande: No special treatment for Muslims Mr Hollande, meanwhile, took a similar position to Mr Sarkozy when it came to special treatment for France's large Muslim community. He said he would not allow separate menus in public cafeterias or separate hours in swimming pools for men and women to satisfy Muslims' demands, and also said he would firmly support France's ban on the face-covering Islamic veils. ( source ) Sarkozy: There must be an Islam "of" France and not an Islam "in" France Sarkozy's first mention of Islam comes during a row over the left's plans to give the right to vote to non-European foreigners in municipal elections Why do you think that non-Europeans are Muslims? Why do you say that? Why do you say people who aren't European are Muslim? asks Hollande. Sarkozy says the right to vote for foreigners, doesn't mean Canadians, or Norwegians, but North Africans, sub-Saharan Africans, Algerians...

France: Graves of Muslim soldiers desecrated Via AP : The graves of several Muslim soldiers in a cemetery in southeastern France were desecrated over the weekend, officials said Monday. The French president called the act "a slur" on the country's history. ( source )

Paris: 100 Muslims protest against religious extremism Via MSN France , translated by Elder of Zion : A hundred Muslims gathered Sunday afternoon on the steps of the Opera Bastille in Paris to "say no to religious radicalism" and proclaimed their attachment to France and the values ??of the Republic, says an AFP reporter. With French flags on their jackets and under a banner saying "Together against fanaticism", demonstrators observed a moment of silence in memory of "Children of Toulouse and Montauban," victims of Mohamed Merah, responsible for seven murders in both cities in March, and who claimed, according to the Interior Minister, Claude Gueant,to have links with Al Qaeda. ( source )

France: 'I�m Arab, a Muslim, and I vote Marine Le Pen' Via France24 : If French Muslims are largely left-leaning in their voting preferences, there are exceptions. France24.com spoke to three French Muslims of Arab descent, all of whom vote for the far-right National Front party. Here are their testimonies. Karima, policewoman: �Many of my colleagues of Arab descent vote far right, but don�t dare say so.� A 33-year-old naturalised French citizen of Moroccan origin, Karima is a mother of three, married to a Frenchman. She arrived in France 15 years ago, and has a diploma in Computer Science from a French university. Now she works as a policewoman in Paris and declined to provide her last name. Karima says she started becoming interested in the ideas of Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the extreme-right National Front party, in 2002. That was almost a decade before Le Pen handed over the party leadership to his youngest daughter, Marine, in 2011. These days, Karima says she regularl...

France: As Le Pen surges, angst deepens in suburbs Interestingly enough, Reuters points out: "Of all the young people interviewed for this report, only one said he had voted in Sunday's election." Via Reuters : Jean-Pierre, 45, the French son of an Algerian soldier who fought on the French side during the Algerian war of independence, said Le Pen was right to demand tighter border controls because there were no jobs to give to new immigrants. But Jean-Pierre and others in Aulnay said the bottom line about Le Pen was that she was fanning racism against foreign-looking people, especially French citizens of North African origin, by describing France's 5-million-strong Muslim population as problematic. "I am a Muslim, and I'm French, and I cannot accept someone telling me that this or that custom is not acceptable," said Jean-Pierre, who owns a car-cleaning business, and said he voted for Sarkozy. "Does she forget that France was in Algeria for 132 year...

France: Mosques accused of backing Hollande Via the Local : The rightwing UMP party has accused Socialists of courting the Muslim vote and alleges that mosques are calling for the faithful to vote for leftwing candidate Francois Hollande. "I want to condemn the conniving and irresponsible attitude of the Socialist Party and its candidate after religious leaders belonging to a network of 700 mosques called on followers to vote for Francois Hollande," writes UMP lawmaker Eric Ciotti in a press release on Wednesday. (...) Muslim religious authorities in France however deny they have called on voters to support Hollande. In an interview with the newswire AFP, Abdallah Zekri, a leader of the French Council of Muslim Faith, says imams have called on followers to vote but have not given them instructions as to who they should vote for. ( source )

France: Paris seeks to become Islamic finance hub in Europe Via Zawya : A report prepared by KFH-Research stated that new global markets are seeking to join the main players in the Islamic financing industry and services, such as France. France is working relentlessly to make numerous legal and organizational reformations to facilitate the offering of Islamic financial services and products. The report added that there is great potential for growth in the field of Islamic financial services in France, since France seeks to become a hub for Islamic banking in Europe. It noted that 1.5 million clients are willing to use Islamic banking tools and products, which equals USD 18.2 billion. In addition, French authorities have offered strong support to develop Islamic banking services, not to mention the high number of Muslims living there who seek Islamic banking services. However, the report mentioned that some legislations need to be amended. ( source )