I know, shocking, right?
SARCELLES, France (AP) — The gunshots outside a synagogue and the grenade that shattered the windows of a kosher grocery spread fear into the streets – but caused little surprise.
Jews across France say anti-Semitic threats have escalated since a deadly assault on a Jewish school in the southwestern town of Toulouse this spring. The attack on the grocery store in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles and the shooting outside the synagogue in nearby Argenteuil came in late September.
In all cases, police suspect Muslim extremists. The Toulouse attacker was a Frenchman trained by Islamist terrorists.
Anti-terrorist police killed one man and arrested 11 in raids this month against an Islamist cell suspected in the Sarcelles attack.
French Jews believe the danger comes from radical messages that appeal to young Muslims in France who are unemployed, angry, alienated and looking for someone to blame.
France has struggled to address the problem head-on because of the social sensitivities.
President Francois Hollande has promised the head of an umbrella group of Muslim organizations that the government would not stigmatize all Muslims for anti-Semitic acts committed by a radical fringe.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls urged respect for all religions in a country that has Western Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities. France has about 5 million Jews and 500,000 Muslims.
“These are not terrorist networks that come from outside. They are from our neighborhoods,” Mr. Valls said on the TF1 television network.
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