There is no Islam of France, far-right leader says

ISTANBUL

Marine Le Pen, France's National Front leader, delivers a speech during her party's summer meeting in La Baule, western France September 23, 2012. Reuters photo

There is no Islam that belongs to France, far-right National Front (FN) leader Marine Le Pen said yesterday in response to comments to the contrary from Interior Minister Manuel Valls, daily Le Monde reported.

An Islam of France does not exist, she said. Le Pen said it was clear that the activities of radical Muslims were not being monitored on French soil, adding that all French Muslims that had become victims of Islamism had to accept the country’s secular system and combat radicalism.

Richard Prasquier, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), also expressed his concerns about the growth of what he called an increasingly bellicose Islam, calling on the entire national Jewish community to defend itself against radicalization, daily Le Figaro reported.

President François Hollande recently visited Prasquier to announce that he would take all necessary steps to guarantee safety at Jewish sites around the country, particularly after police shot dead a young man identified as Jérémie Louis-Sidney at his Strasbourg apartment on Oct. 6.

Officers had gone to arrest Louis-Sidney, who was said to be a Muslim convert of Caribbean origin, in connection with the bombing of a kosher foods store in a Paris suburb last month.

Police detained 12 people suspected of involvement in radical Islamist activities mainly in Paris, Cannes and Strasbourg in other raids across the country.

The Interior Ministry has said the raids will continue.