Anti-Islam rhetoric in French election risks ‘spiral of hatred’, says Paris mosque rector

Chems-eddine Hafiz says rightwing candidates are competing with each other to criticise Islam and Muslims

A rise in anti-Islam rhetoric in the French presidential election campaign risks creating a spiral of hatred", scapegoating law-abiding Muslims in a similar way to the discourse against Jews in the 1930s, the rector of the Paris mosque has said.

I'm extremely worried," said Chems-eddine Hafiz, the rector of Paris's historic Grande Mosquee. We're in a society that is fractured and searching for itself, a society that is weakened and fearful after the pandemic. The fact of looking for a scapegoat - there have been precedents to that: in 1930 when the finger began to be pointed at Jews who became the problem of a whole society' ... Today it's no longer Jews, it's Muslims ... I thought in the 21st century we'd be safe from that type of discourse."