Source : Presstv / 17 Mar 2014

Unusually high pollution levels have prompted the French government to impose vehicle bans in the capital, Paris, and its suburbs.

Thousands of cars have been banned from roads across the capital and 22 surrounding areas on Monday, as alternate driving days have been enforced in a bid to reduce the health-threatening smog.

Under the measure, some 700 police officers at 60 checkpoints around the capital will ensure that only cars with license plates numbers ending in odd numbers are out on the streets on Monday.

Source : World Bulletin / 30 Jan 2014 

Attacks on Muslims in France, including women wearing headscarves, increased by 11.3 percent in 2013, compared to the previous year, according to the National Observatory of Islamophobia.

Two hundred and twenty six Muslims were attacked in 2013, according to France's police and military records, of which 164 reported cases were threats against Muslims and 62 were actions against Muslims.

Source : OnIslam & News Agencies / 27 Mar 2013

The majority of French support imposing tougher laws on the wearing of hijab in the southern European country, a new survey has revealed, putting the Muslim headscarf in the heart of a new controversy, France 24 reported.

The poll by the French marketing and opinion center BVA found that 86 percent of French support introducing legislation that would ban “all signs of religious and political affiliation” in private schools and nurseries.

Source : OnIslam & News Agencies / 29 Jan 2013

A new survey has found that French are growing concerned with immigrants, politicians, globalization and media, with 74 percent believe Islam is not compatible with French society, The Inquisitr reported.

“The French, or at least the vast majority of them, seem to be afraid of everything,” French historian Michel Wincock told Le Monde this week.

Source : OnIslam / 14 Dec 2012

Seeking to preserve its secular nature, the French government has enacted a new policy to deport foreign-born imams and disband faith-based groups if they are found to suffer “religious pathology”.

"The aim is not to combat opinions by force, but to detect and understand when an opinion turns into a potentially violent and criminal excess," Interior Minister Manuel Valls told a press conference cited by Reuters.

By Elaine Ganley | AP | 1 May 2012

They are France’s millions-strong minority with a voice that usually falls silent at election time. But this year, there is a special new effort to mobilize French Muslims to speak up at the ballot box in Sunday’s presidential race — amid a surge of Islam-bashing among the French right.

Source : Al Arabiya | 09 Apr 2012

Ahead of an upcoming presidential election in France, policymakers are riding a wave of Islam-dominated issues that have unwittingly taken center stage in the country’s public domain.

Concerns over Islamic fundamentalism reached a peak in recent weeks when French police launched the latest of a series of raids on suspected Islamic militants, detaining 10 people across the country in predawn arrests.

Source : Cihan News Agency | 28 Mar 2012

Mohamed Merah, a gunman who claimed responsibility for the recent killing of seven people in Toulouse, is reported to be a French intelligence asset, which raised questions about French security officials' failure to stop Merah.

By Iman Khalaf /Muslimmatters|/ 26 Dec 2011

A 32-year old mother is set to become the first woman imprisoned by the French government following its introduction of the niqab ban in April. Hind Ahmas, courageously flying the flag for women’s freedom, was first arrested on 11th April in Paris. She refused to pay the £100 fine and abide by the court’s sentence that she spend 15 days learning citizenship.

PARIS - Facing a rarity of mosques and an official ban on street prayers, France's Muslims are pleading for more worship places to accommodate their religious needs.

“We don't want to bother people,” a worshipper told Press TV.

“Friday prayer is vital to Islam and every group deserves to properly practice religion. Here we're still praying on pavement.”

Last month, a ban on street prayers came into effect in the capital Paris.