At least nine pigs\u2019 heads were found outside several mosques in the Paris region on Tuesday, the city\u2019s police chief said \u2014 an incident that has sparked alarm over rising anti-Muslim hatred.<\/p>\n
\u201cPigs\u2019 heads have been left in front of certain mosques \u2026 Four in Paris and five in the inner suburbs,\u201d Laurent Nunez told a press conference, adding that officers were not \u201cruling out the possibility of finding more\u201d.<\/p>\n
Police have opened a probe into incitement to hatred aggravated by racial or religious discrimination, Nunez said, calling the acts \u201cdespicable\u201d.<\/p>\n
The consumption of pork is forbidden in Islam as the meat is believed to be impure.<\/p>\n
Several of the heads had the surname of President Emmanuel Macron scrawled on them in blue ink, the Paris prosecutor\u2019s office told AFP.<\/p>\n
Nunez said there could be parallels with past incidents linked to \u201cforeign interference\u201d but urged \u201cextreme caution\u201d.<\/p>\n
In early June, three Serbs were charged over the vandalism of Jewish sites in a case investigators suspect was backed by Russia.<\/p>\n
France is home to the largest Muslim community in the European Union, as well as the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States.<\/p>\n
Several EU nations have reported a spike in \u201canti-Muslim hatred\u201d and antisemitism since Israel\u2019s invasion of Gaza started in October 2023, according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.<\/p>\n
Anti-Muslim incidents in France rose by 75 per cent between January and May 2025 compared with a year earlier, with attacks on individuals tripling, the interior ministry said in July.<\/p>\n
Israel has been facing growing international criticism over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by its offensive since October 2023, with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and experts already declaring its actions in Gaza as a \u201cgenocide\u201d, which Tel Aviv rejects.<\/p>\n
\u2018Anti-Muslim hatred\u2019
\nThe incidents around Paris drew swift condemnation from political and community leaders.<\/p>\n
Macron met with representatives of the Muslim community in the capital following the incident to express his \u201csupport\u201d, his office told AFP.<\/p>\n
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the city had taken legal action, denouncing the \u201cracist acts\u201d.<\/p>\n
For his part, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau called the deeds \u201coutrageous\u201d and \u201cabsolutely unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want our Muslim compatriots to be able to practice their faith in peace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Chems-Eddine Hafiz, the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, denounced the \u201cIslamophobic acts\u201d as \u201ca new and sad stage in the rise of anti-Muslim hatred\u201d.<\/p>\n
Bassirou Camara, head of anti-discrimination group Addam, told AFP he feared an escalation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been raising the alarm for months and we are not being heard,\u201d Camara said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat will be the next step? Throwing pigs\u2019 heads at worshippers or physically assaulting them?\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside one of the affected mosques, a 40-year-old former association director, who spoke on condition of anonymity, laid flowers to show \u201csolidarity and support\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople shouldn\u2019t have to hide their faith,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Similar incidents have targeted mosques and Muslim associations elsewhere in France in recent years, including a pig\u2019s head left outside a Muslim association in the northern Pas-de-Calais region in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least nine pigs\u2019 heads were found outside several mosques in the Paris region on Tuesday, the city\u2019s police chief said \u2014 an incident that has sparked alarm over rising anti-Muslim hatred. \u201cPigs\u2019 heads have been left in front of certain mosques \u2026 Four in Paris and five in the inner suburbs,\u201d Laurent Nunez told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11901,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11899\/revisions\/11901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}