France's top Muslim leaders Dalil Boubakeur Union of Islamic Organisations of France UOIF

France's top Muslim 
leaders has called for the number of mosques to double over the next two years to remedy a shortage of places of worship for the country's millions of faithful.

Speaking at a weekend gathering of French Islamic organisations, where participants asked for respect in the face of a rise in anti-Muslim attacks, Dalil Boubakeur said the 2,200 mosques in the country did not adequately represent Europe's largest Muslim community.

"We need double (that number) within two years," the head of the French Muslim Council and rector of the Paris mosque said in the town of Le Bourget near the capital.

"There are a lot of prayer rooms, of unfinished mosques, and there are a lot of mosques that are not being built," he added Saturday at the Muslim gathering, billed as the largest in the Western world.

This annual convention of the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF), which groups together more than 250 Muslim associations, comes just months after jihadist gunmen killed 17 people in and near Paris.

Since then, there has been a marked rise in Islamophobia in France, with 167 acts against mosques or threats recorded in January alone compared to just 14 in the same month last year.

France has long had a difficult relationship with its Muslim minority -- currently estimated at between four and five million -- that dates back to bloody struggles in its former North African colonies and the legacy of immigrants trapped in some of the country's poorest districts.

Long decades of insurgency against French rule in Algeria in the mid-twentieth century, followed by a spate of Algerian extremist attacks in France in the 1990s created difficulties for communal relations -- which reawakened with the rise of global jihadism after 9/11.

Apart from physical acts, anti-Muslim sentiment in the country varies from mayors refusing to have mosques built to resistance to halal meals being served in prisons or schools.

Participants at the gathering -- which while organised by the UOIF, a group close to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, ranged from liberal to ultra-conservative -- denounced violence committed in the name of Islam.

"We are loyal to our country, France. We love God, we love our prophet, but we also love the French Republic," said Amar Lasfar, UOIF head.

Boubakeur agreed, adding nevertheless that Muslims must also be respected in Franc

"Islam is no longer an Islam stemming from immigration, it is a national Islam that has the right to the recognition and consideration of the French population, just like other communities in France," Boubakeur said.

Extremists Protest Islamic Law in Australia April-2015

Hundreds Protest Islamic Law in Australia

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Protesters waving Australian flags and carrying signs such as "Yes Australia. No Sharia" rallied around the country on Saturday in events organisers said were against Islamic extremism.
The "Reclaim Australia" events drew hundreds of supporters but also triggered counter-rallies from other groups who criticised them as racist and called for greater tolerance.
"We are pro-Australian values and anti-extreme Islam, but we're not anti-Muslim," Reclaim Australia spokeswoman Catherine Brennan told Agence France Presse, adding there was no racism behind the rallies, which she said had attracted people from diverse backgrounds.
"Since when is it being racist to love your country and to love the values and culture that you've been brought up with?"
Reclaim Australia's John Oliver told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the group was "not against any particular race or any particular religion".
"We're against the extremists of one particular religion," he said.
"I know in Sydney and Melbourne they've got Muslims already signed on to attend because they can see what's happening and they don't like what's happening."
In Sydney, hundreds braved the rain to rally in Martin Place, near the site of a deadly siege in which a lone gunman inspired by the Islamic State group took customers and staff hostage in a cafe in December. Two people, and the gunman, were killed in that incident.
"We have an extreme ideology called Islam which is starting to gain a foothold in our societies," one speaker told the event, in which one person held a home-made sign reading "No Islam. No Sharia. No Halal".
In Melbourne, tensions between competing protesters led to scuffles, with police on horseback forced to form a barrier between the groups, and reports paramedics treated several people for injuries.
And in Queensland, former politician Pauline Hanson defended the rallies, which on its website Reclaim Australia said were against sharia law and the burqa and in support of gender equality.
"We have people here today who stand against racism. So do I," Hanson said.
However, rival protesters called the Reclaim Australia rallies anti-Muslim.
"Events like theirs incite racism and violence against Muslims," Clare Fester, who organised the counter-protest in Sydney said in statement.
"Their attacks on Islam imply that anyone who is a Muslim is violent, supports terrorism and is anti-woman. This in an attempt to target all Muslims with classic racist stereotypes."

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http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/mobile/digicel/news/Hundreds-protest-Islamic-law-in-Australia

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