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A Quran was set on fire and placed outside a mosque in the southeastern French commune of Villeurbanne in the Metropolis of Lyon, the Rhone Mosques Council (CMR) confirmed Tuesday, denouncing the act as "Islamophobic" and indicative of growing hostility toward Muslims in France.
According to a CMR statement, an unidentified individual entered the mosque’s prayer room overnight Sunday, burned the Muslim holy book, and left it outside the building before fleeing.
“This vile act is part of a series of hateful assaults that reflect a worrying and increasingly hostile climate towards Muslim citizens in France,” the council said. It condemned the desecration as an act of “appalling cowardice.”
The incident occurred amid what CMR called a “particularly painful context,” referencing the April 25 killing of Aboubakar Cisse, who was stabbed to death while praying at a mosque, and the fatal shooting of a Tunisian man by his neighbor on Saturday.
“We strongly condemn this heinous desecration, which is a grave violation of the dignity of worshippers and of the fundamental principles of our Republic, foremost among them being freedom of worship,” the council added, urging authorities to identify the perpetrator and initiate “exemplary” legal proceedings.
“Now more than ever, it is our collective responsibility – that of institutions, elected officials, and every citizen – to stand united against all forms of hatred, stigmatization, and violence targeting places of worship and believers, regardless of their faith,” the statement said.
A police source confirmed that an investigation has been opened into the Quran-burning incident.
The attack comes in the wake of a deadly shooting Saturday in the southern town of Puget-sur-Argens, where a man known for posting racist videos on social media fatally shot his Tunisian neighbor and seriously wounded a Turkish man.
The suspect, a French national born in 1971, fled the scene by car but was arrested shortly afterward when his partner alerted police. According to Le Parisien newspaper, the suspect had declared his "allegiance to the French flag" in a video and called on others to “shoot” people of foreign origin.
France's national anti-terrorism prosecutors have taken over the case, marking the first time a far-right-linked racist attack is being treated as terrorism since the office's creation in 2019.
In a separate incident in April, a Malian man was stabbed to death inside a mosque. That case is currently being handled by regional prosecutors.
France is home to the European Union’s largest Muslim population, as well as the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States.
Amid the rise in anti-Muslim attacks, France has also seen an increase in antisemitic incidents since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing Israeli military campaign in Gaza. On Saturday night, France’s Holocaust memorial and three synagogues in Paris, along with a restaurant, were vandalized with paint.
Meanwhile, in London, a Turkish-born man who burned a Quran was found guilty Monday of a religiously aggravated public order offense.
Sweden has also witnessed multiple Quran burnings, most notably by Iraqi Christian Salwan Momika, who was shot dead in January.
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