Pigs’ heads at French mosques left by foreign nationals

In this photo dated Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020, a man walks inside a mosque in Paris, France. A spotlight of suspicion encircled Muslims again even before the latest acts of extremist violence, including two beheadings, and French President Emmanuel Macron has forged ahead with a plan to rid Islam in France of religious extremists. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

“Foreign nationals who immediately left the country” were behind pigs’ heads left outside mosques in the Paris region, the city’s prosecutor’s office told AFP on Wednesday, citing a “clear desire to cause unrest” in France.

Prosecutors opened a probe after nine pigs’ heads were found outside several mosques on Tuesday, in an incident that sparked alarm over rising anti-Muslim hatred.

A farmer in the northern region of Normandy told investigators that two people in a vehicle “with what appeared to be Serbian number plates” bought several pigs’ heads from him, the office said, confirming a report from broadcaster BFMTV.

Video surveillance showed the two men arriving in Paris in the same vehicle before “leaving the heads in front of several mosques”, the prosecutor’s office said.

The suspects “likely used a Croatian telephone line” that was traced crossing the French-Belgian border on Tuesday morning, “after the crimes were committed”, the prosecutor’s office said.

Police have opened a probe into incitement to hatred aggravated by racial or religious discrimination, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said following the incident.

The consumption of pork is considered haram -- forbidden in Islam -- as the meat is believed to be impure.

Several of the heads had the surname of President Emmanuel Macron scrawled on them in blue ink.

Nunez had raised the possibility of parallels with past incidents linked to “foreign interference”.

In early June, three Serbs were charged over the vandalism of Jewish sites in a case investigators suspect was backed by Russia.

France is home to the largest Muslim community in the European Union, as well as the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States.

Several EU nations have reported a spike in “anti-Muslim hatred” and antisemitism since the Gaza war started in October 2023, according to the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.

Fighters from Palestinian organization Hamas launched an attack in Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023. Israel has responded with a relentless assault on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.