「イスラム嫌悪」に抗議　１万人以上がデモ行進　パリ

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】仏パリ北部で10日、イスラム嫌悪に抗議するデモ行進が行われ、1万人以上が参加した。デモ行進には、仏政府と極右勢力からの批判も集まった。（写真は仏首都パリで「イスラム嫌悪をやめろ」と書かれた横断幕を掲げ、デモ行進を行う人々）
　このデモは、同国南部バイヨンヌで先月、８４歳の元極右活動家の男がモスクを襲撃、発砲し、男性２人が負傷した事件に抗議して行われた。
　デモの参加者らの多くは、イスラム教に対する攻撃を非難するプラカードを掲げた。伝統的なイスラム教のスカーフをかぶった女性も多かった。またフランス国旗の色である青、白、赤の３色のスカーフを着用した女性らもいた。
　この抗議デモは、イスラム教徒によるベールやスカーフの着用をめぐる議論がフランスで再燃する中で起きた。また近年、同国でもイスラム過激派などによる襲撃事件が発生しているという背景がある。
　デモに参加していた実業家のラルビさん（３５）はＡＦＰの取材に対し「われわれは警鐘を鳴らすために、超えてはならない憎悪のレベルがあるということを言うために来た」と話した。
　一方で一部の政府関係者は、このデモ行進に共感しない姿勢を明確に示した。
　エリザベット・ボルヌ環境連帯移行相は、デモ行進は人々を互いに敵対させるだけだと指摘。
　極右政党「国民連合」のマリーヌ・ルペン党首も１０日にツイッターで、イスラム嫌悪よりもイスラム過激派が同国ではるかに多くのイスラム教徒を殺しているとして、デモ行進を非難した。
　最新の統計によると、フランス国内には５００万～６００万人のイスラム教徒が暮らしている。これはフランスで２番目に多く信仰されている宗教がイスラム教であり、また同国が欧州最大のイスラム教徒コミュニティーを抱えていることを意味する。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/11/12-08:49）

Over 10,000 people turned out north of Paris on Sunday for a march against Islamophobia that drew criticism from both the government and the far right.
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, while others had adopted veils bearing the blue, white and red colours 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, including AFP.
The march was called by a number of individuals and organisations, 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 jihadist 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, a veiled woman from the suburbs of Paris, told AFP.
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.
With or without the veil, we are sick of being the last in line, said a nurse, Nadjet Fella, who said she had campaigned in Algeria against pressure to wear the veil there.
I chose not to wear it, but it hurts me that those who wear it are picked on, she 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 jihadist 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 Europe.
But France is fiercely protective of the secular principles of its constitution, banning the wearing of religious symbols in state schools, for example.
- Political row -
Last week, the Socialist party formally distanced itself from the demonstration, objecting to a reference to oppressive laws concerning Muslims -- thought by some to be a reference to the 2004 law banning the wearing of veils in schools.
It said it would organise its own demonstration at a later date.
Critics also accused some of the 50 original signatories to the petition calling for the march of having links to political Islam -- including the CCIF itself.
A number of far-left politicians, including Jean-Luc Melenchon, the firebrand leader of France Unbowed party, nevertheless joined the Paris rally Sunday.
Several members of the government meanwhile made it clear they had no sympathy for the march.
Gabriel Attal, a junior minister with responsiblity for young people denounced the what he said was the opportunism of those left-wing politicians supporting the march.
And Elisabeth Borne, junior minister for ecology, said the march was only setting people against each other.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally, also condemned the march in a tweet Sunday.
Radical Islamism had killed far more Muslims in France than Islamophobia, she argued. This reveals the extent of your fraud! she added.