A Balancing Act for France's Muslims

A small explosion at a Kosher grocery store outside of Paris set off fresh tensions between the country's Muslim and Jewish populations. The attacks came just hours after a French weekly published a cartoon of a naked Mohamed. According to The Republic:

France, which has western Europe's largest Jewish population, sees sporadic but persistent anti-Semitic acts, often vandalism of gravesites and synagogues. The nation also has the region's largest Muslim population, and mosques and Muslim gravesites are periodically desecrated.

Fears of a new wave of anti-Semitism in France resurfaced after a gunman claiming ties to radical Islam killed three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse in March, the worst such attacks in France since the 1990s.

Below a photo essay, by Reuters, of Muslims in France.

A visitor looks at Muslim women headwear during the 29th annual meeting of French Muslims at Le Bourget. (Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

French Muslim women of Algerian origin attend a commemoration lunch in the Izards district of Toulouse. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

French Muslims hang out by a shop in Toulouse. (Zohra Bensemra / Reuters)

Muslims pray in a mosque in Paris. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)