Rallies Held in France to Slam Islamophobia
It was called following last month's attack on a mosque in the southern French city of Bayonne by an 84-year-old man, a former far-right activist, who shot and wounded two men.
Many of the protesters carried placards denouncing attacks on Islam, a number of women taking part wore traditional Muslim veils (Hijab), while others had adopted veils bearing the blue, white and red colors of the French flag.
Around 13,500 people attended the march, according to a count carried out by the Occurence consultancy and commissioned by the news media.
The march was called by a number of individuals and organizations, including the Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF).
It also came as the debate over the veil has been revived in France and against a background of several extremist attacks in France in recent years.
"We came to sound the alarm, to say there is a level of hate you don't go beyond," one marcher, Larbi, a 35-year-old businessman, told AFP.
"We are open to criticism, but you mustn't go beyond certain limits of aggression," he added.
- 'Scandalous propaganda' -
"We want to be heard,... not pushed to edge of society," Asmae Eumosid, said a woman wearing Hijab from the suburbs of Paris.
"You hear a lot of nonsense about Islam and about veiled women today," the 29-year-old, who works as an engineer in the car industry, added.
In the southern city of Marseille Sunday, several hundred people staged a similar demonstration, carrying placards that read "Islamophobia kills" and shouting "We are all children of the Republic".
Claudine Rodinson, a 76-year-old pensioners came with a group of the radical left Lutte Ouvriere (Workers Struggle) party.
"There is a scandalous propaganda waged against Muslims," she said, adding that terrorism was deliberately equated with Islam.
France has between five and six million Muslims, according to the latest studies, which makes it the second largest religion in the country -- and the largest Muslim community in Western Europe.
But France is fiercely protective of the secular principles of its constitution, banning the wearing of religious symbols in state schools, for example.
