Dalil Boubakeur, Head of the French Muslim Council and rector of the Paris mosque on Saturday said that the number of mosques in France should be doubled over the next two years so that it could be adequately enough to represent one of Europe’s largest Muslim communities.
Dalil said 2,200 mosques are not enough for 5 million Muslims living in France, and therefore it should be doubled to deal with a shortage of places of worship for the country’s millions of faithful.
“We need double (that number) within two years,” Boubakeur said during the 32nd edition of the Annual Gathering of French Muslims.
“There are a lot of prayer rooms, of unfinished mosques, and there are a lot of mosques that are not being built,” he added Saturday at the Muslim gathering, billed as the largest in the Western world.
Amar Lasfar, president of the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF), which organises the gathering, also be in agreement.
“The number of mosques must reflect the number of Muslims (in France),” he said.
After a series of terror attacks in Paris, there has been a marked rise in Islamophobia in France.
Since then, 167 threats or acts of violence against mosques were reported in January of this year alone, compared to just 14 in the same month last year in France.
Participants at the gathering also denounced violence committed in the name of Islam.