Over 50 anti-Muslim attacks in France in less than a week

Over 50 attacks, including shootings, have been carried out against Muslims across France in less than a week since a fatal raid on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the country’s Muslim community says.

The 54 assaults comprised of 21 cases of gunfire and grenade throwing at Islamic buildings and 33 cases of threats, said Abdallah Zekri, a spokesman for the monitoring body at the Central Council of Muslims in France, on Monday.

The figures, which do not include raids in Paris and its suburbs, were provided by the French Interior Ministry, Zekri added.

He also noted that the number of attacks in such a short time is unusually high, calling on security forces to better monitor Islamic sites as well as social media.

The figures were released following a recent wave of terrorist attacks in France which began on January 7 when the office of Charlie Hebdo came under assault by two gunmen. Some 12 people were killed in the incident.

Two days later, two brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi, suspected of murdering the journalists, were killed after being cornered at a printing workshop in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele.

In a posthumous video released on Sunday, Amedy Coulibaly, a gunman who killed four hostages in another terror attack at a Paris supermarket on Friday before he was slain by police, claimed he was acting on behalf of the ISIL Takfiri group in coordination with the two brothers who attacked Charlie Hebdo.

He also said the two brothers were affiliated with the al-Qaeda terrorist group.

The terror attacks have drawn widespread condemnation from Muslims in France and the entire world.

On January 9, French President Francois Hollande called on the nation to remain vigilant in the face of the shocking terror assaults in the country, saying the “fanatics” behind the violence “have nothing to do with Islam.”