PARIS – Deadly attacks on Jews by Muslim extremists in January and a sharp spike in anti-Muslim acts since then have prompted the French government to elevate the fight against racism into "a great national cause," government officials said Friday.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced a detailed plan that dedicates $108 million over the next three years to programs and policies that combat "racism and anti-Semitism," including a nationwide awareness campaign, harsher punishments for racist acts and increased monitoring of online hate speech.
"Racism, anti-Semitism, hatred of Muslims, of foreigners and homophobia are increasing in an intolerable manner in our country," he said. "French Jews should no longer be afraid of being Jewish, and French Muslims should no longer be ashamed of being Muslims."
Under the government proposals, racist hate speech would be prosecuted under the penal code, not under the French media laws. This would enable prosecutors to bring cases more swiftly and less leniently. Another change would turn racist speech or racist motivation for a crime into an aggravating factor, making for harsher sentences.
Valls also announced more assiduous monitoring of hate speech online, using existing tools that enable the flagging of racist content on a website.
Jewish organizations welcomed the effort, as did Muslim groups, whose leaders said they had been consulted on a recent official report on racist acts. It found that from 2013 to 2014, the number of anti-Semitic acts had risen to 851 from 423, and that there were more acts targeting Muslims in January of this year than there were during all of 2014.
New York Times
