Although anti-Christian attacks and incidents are fairly common in France, the month of March was even more drastic than usual, according to the Gatestone Institute, which recently published a new report. Having partially summed up the data for March, the picture is shocking.
On March 5, police foiled an Islamist plot to bomb the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, and authorities arrested a 62-year-old Muslim man of Egyptian descent. The report notes that this is just one of a series of planned and foiled terrorist attacks, according to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin:
Never before have so many attacks been thwarted in France, with the Islamic State having been behind the last eight thwarted attempts in France.
On March 5, authorities arrested another 62-year-old man "clearly committed to jihadist ideology", and on March 8 he was charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism and "planning an act of violence in a Catholic religious building".
On March 30, on Easter Eve, an illegal Muslim immigrant from Senegal with a criminal record was arrested for advocating terrorism and threatening to set fire to the church of Notre Dame de la Voie in Athis Mons, Essonne. According to a report,
he entered the church shortly before 7 pm, where he accosted a worshipper, describing himself as a Muslim man. He told him that he saw visions and warned that the religious building would burn down in three months, and then left.
When arrested by police near another church, the Muslim man said he was just joking.
On March 28, a Muslim man of Albanian descent walked into a church while mass was in progress, and began shouting "Allahu Akbar".
On March 10, the chapel of Notre Dame de Partout in Saint-Mesin was found to have been painted with several Muslim inscriptions, including "repent", "final warning" and "the cross will be broken". The cross opposite the chapel was also damaged. The next day, in the nearby village of Clermont d'Excideuil boasting a population of just a few hundred, other churches and crosses were vandalized, just as the graveyard. According to one report,
officers found Islamic inscriptions on the graves, a war memorial, a church door, a calvary monument and a fountain. Some inscriptions read: "France is now Allah's", "Isa [Jesus] is breaking the cross" and "Obey Islam".
In total, more than 50 graves were damaged by scrawls and scribbles. Two of the graves were spray-painted with the letters 'GWER'. The term "gwer" refers to a white man, a Western man or a non-Muslim. On another grave, the term "Kouffar" was written, denoting infidels.
