French President Francois Hollande on Thursday said Muslims are the primary victims of intolerance and must be protected.
Hollande spoke exactly one week after gunmen burst into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine.
“The first victims of fanaticism and intolerance are Muslims,” Hollande said from the Institute of the Arab World in Paris. “Anti-Muslim acts, like anti-Semitism, should not only be denounced, but severely punished.”
Speaking at the Arab World Institute, he said Islam was compatible with democracy and thanked Arabs for their solidarity over terrorism in Paris.
Speaking on Thursday morning, Mr Hollande said that the French were united in the face of terror.
“French Muslims have the same rights as all other French,” he said. “We have the obligation to protect them.”
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged Thursday to heighten security measures against Islamist extremists, speaking to parliament eight days after the Paris attacks.
“Hate preachers, violent delinquents who act in the name of Islam, those behind them, and the intellectual arsonists of international terrorism will be rigorously fought with all legal means at the disposal of the state,” she said.
