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Internet platform for studying Xenophobia, Radicalism and Problems of Intercultural communication.

Vandalism

Vandalism In February 2015, in the town of Sar-Union in the east of France, the Jewish cemetery was again desecrated.

In 2013 45 cases of xenophobic vandalism were recorded. 21 case was Islamophobic by nature, 18 - anti-Christian, 5 - anti-Semitic, 1 - Anti-Roma. Subjected to desecration were mosques in Val-de Rei (11th of January ), Ozoir-la-Ferriere, Provins, Thiers and Meximieux (all during the first half of February) , Voiron (6th or 7th of April ), Meaux (17th of April ), Limoges (21st of May ), Coulommiers and Narbonne (31st of May ), Villefontaine (20th of September ), Mulhouse (beginning of October, two ), Alsace (31st of October ), Besançon (5th of November, and at least twice before – two ), Paris (18th of November ).

Desecration of churches have been noted in the communes of Uegoa, Loctudy and Combrit, south of Quimper (12th-13th of January) , Agen (21st of January ), Strasbourg (21st of February ), Lyon (23rd of March ), Fos-sur-Mer (14th of April ), Aveze (22nd of April ), Limoges (2nd of May and 7th of June ), Nanterre (14th of May ), Nantes (8th of June ), Chambourcy (27th of October and 3rd of November ), Carcassonne (13th of December ). Furthermore, on the 1st of July it became known that the Catholic bookstore «Livres en Famille» in Bordeaux suffered at the hands of vandals for the 27th time .

On September 2nd on the territory of the parish of St. Helena in Bubry the statue of St. Helena, which is 1 high and was standing in a niche, was found abandoned in a fountain.

On September 6th the statue of the Virgin and Child of the XV century was broken in the Catholic parish of Plomer .

The following places have also been attacked and desecrated: the office of the French Association of Jewish Students (Paris, March 7th), a synagogue in Garges-les-Gonesse (May 31st), a synagogue and community center Chabad-Lubavitch in Paris (July 8th), a synagogue in Marseille (August 3rd). Also, in early March, a neo-Nazi defiantly tore pages from the Torah while in front of the building of the Jewish Consistory of Paris and accompanied his actions with a Nazi salute .

In June a gypsy camp in Hellmese was attacked with "Molotov cocktails" . 43 cases of xenophobic vandalism have been recorded in 2014. Unlike last year, most were anti-Semitic (23 cases), followed by anti-Christian (18) and anti-Muslim (2, ten times less than in 2013). This change can be explained with the change of public opinion, following Israel’s actions in Gaza.

The following synagogues have been desecrated: Marseilles (June 9), Aulnay-sous-Bois (July 11), three synagogues in Paris (July 13), Lyon (July 19), and Sarselle and Garges-lès-Gonesse (July 20). Reims (August 7), Joinville-le-Pont (21 September), Bastia (28 September).

Anti-Semitic graffiti was found on the building of the Movement “Habad” in Boulogne on January 19 .

On February 3, inscription: "To hell with the Jews» (NIKK LES JUIF), was sprayed nearby Jewish ORT school in the Paris suburb of Montreuil .

On May 29, anti-Semitic graffiti was found on a Jewish school building in Seine-Saint-Denis .

On July 23, participants of an anti-Israel demonstration in Paris attacked a Kosher restaurant .

On July 27, men armed with metal rods attacked two Jewish stores in Marseilles .

On November 6, a Molotov Cocktail was thrown into a Kosher restaurant in Paris .

On November 17, a Jewish cemetery in Valdvis was desecrated .

On January 7, anti-Semitic graffiti appeared on the “Wall of Peace” in Paris. On January 27, graffiti in the form of inscriptions "A. Hitler" was found in the memorial museum (the former Nazi camp) Récébédou in Portet-sur-Garonne . On January 29, Parisian street exhibition "Expulsion of Jewish children from the third quarter" was desecrated .

On July 30, anti-Semitic graffiti was found on the monument to deported Jews in Marseilles .

In early February, a chapel Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp - one of the most famous works of the famous architect Le Corbusier of the twentieth century was vandalised.

The following churches have been desecrated during the monitored period: in Tourcoing (February 26), Pau and Toulouse (mid-May), Dieppe (19 May), three churches in Verdun (July 18), two churches in Tolon-les-Bains (August 6), Church in Flanebeke (August 19), Vanves (December 1), Neshat (1 night of December 2, Sisters of Christ monastery in Tréguier (December 8), Douai (18 and 25 December), and Bellele (December 25).

On December 1, Protestant Church of Villeneuve d'Ascq was seriously damaged in an arson attack .

On July 25, Saint-Just cemetery was desecrated in Lana .

On August 20, a mosque in Cognac was desecrated by vandals .

On September 23, a mosque was vandalised in Pontarlier.

After the terrorist attacks in January 2015, 26 mosques were vandalised, and more than 60 Islamophobic incidents were recorded.

On February 15, 2015, 300 graves were desecrated at the Jewish cemetery in Sar-Yunion. Shortly thereafter, a monument to the victims of the Holocaust in a synagogue in Elbeuf was desecrated. In February, swastikas were found on the walls of the sports center in Isuden.

According to national statistics, police reports of anti-Semitic incidents rose 74 percent in 2018 over the previous year, causing widespread concern in the country with the largest Jewish population in the European Union.

The most widespread act of vandalism took place on December 3, 2019, near the French city of Strasbourg. 107 graves in Saverne's Westhoffen Jewish cemetery were desecrated by vandals. Swastikas were painted on them with spray paint. The number "14," considered a symbol of white supremacy, was also found on one of them. According to the Saverne prosecutor's office, the desecration is part of a "serial phenomenon," as several similar acts had been committed in villages in the area in previous weeks.

In the aftermath, the French Interior Ministry on Wednesday promised to create a special office to combat hate crimes. "The republic itself has been desecrated," Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said after visiting a 16th-century cemetery. "Hate has taken hold, hate is on our national territory. We will make sure that the people who did this are condemned," he added.

A little earlier, the conservative Catholic website Aletheia also reported on the mass desecration of about 100 Christian graves in a cemetery in Cognac.

On January 20, 2020, two mosques were vandalized in La Maure and Domaine in southeastern France. When worshippers arrived at the mosque in La Mura, which is run by the Turkish Muslim community, they found that trash cans in front of the building had been overturned, the mailbox and door handle were damaged, and a small pennant of the Turkish flag had been partially burned. Islamophobic graffiti such as "Muslims are harmful" was also written on the wall of the mosque. In another case, a man, presumably drunk, entered the mosque in Domene on the evening of December 27, damaged it and wrote statements on the tablecloth accusing the imam and the community of inciting terrorism. The attacker managed to escape from the mosque.

Meanwhile, racist anti-Muslim graffiti was also written on walls in the center of the town of Château-Gontier in the Pey de la Loire region. One of them read "Islam is beyond Europe." In a tweet, French Interior Minister Gérard Darmanin said that he supported the Muslim victims in La Muir and Château-Gontier and that such heinous actions were against the values of the republic. The statement of the Coordinating Committee of Turkish Muslims in France (CCMTF) states that anti-Muslim, racist and xenophobic ideas have been gaining strength in the country especially in recent times and Muslims are directly attacked.

On April 12, 2021, a mosque in Rennes was desecrated. The graffiti included insults to the Prophet Muhammad.

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