Attack on mosque raises fears of backlash

AN ARSON attack on a mosque raised fears yesterday of an anti-Muslim backlash in France as anger mounted over the gruesome murder of an elderly priest by two teenage Islamists.

The fire appeared to have been started deliberately just before dawn, police said. No one was hurt.

The cutting of the priest’s throat at a church in the remote Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray has horri- fied France less than two weeks after the massacre of 84 people in Nice.

The far-Right leader, Marine Le Pen, said she feared France would be hit by “serial terrorist attacks” this summer.

The Normandy and Nice attacks were both claimed by Isil. The slaughter in Nice severely strained community relations in the city.

Muslim leaders were quick to condemn the murder of Fr Jacques Hamel, 85. Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Grand Mosque in Paris, described it as a “blasphemous sacrilege which goes against all the teachings of our religion”. Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, warned that jihadists were aiming to “set the French people against each other [and] attack religion in order to start a war of religions”.

Last night it was reported only one terror suspect in Britain is currently subject to an order known as a “Tpim” or Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measure. Tpims replaced the more restrictive control orders in 2012 and can involve a suspect being electronically tagged or subjected to a curfew.