Authorities in France have launched an investigation after pig heads were found outside at least nine mosques in and around Paris on Tuesday, some with the name of President Emmanuel Macron scrawled on them. The acts have sparked outrage and fears within the country’s Muslim community at a time when anti-Muslim hatred is on the rise.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau condemned the incidents, saying, “I want our Muslim compatriots to be able to practice their faith in peace.” Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez added that investigators could not rule out foreign interference, noting similarities with earlier acts that were later linked to foreign actors.
By Wednesday, the Paris prosecutor’s office told AFP that “foreign nationals who immediately left the country” were behind the attacks, describing it as a “clear desire to cause unrest.” Investigators said a farmer in Normandy sold several pig heads to two men driving a vehicle with Serbian number plates. Surveillance footage showed the same vehicle arriving in Paris, where the men left the heads in front of mosques, before fleeing. They reportedly used a Croatian phone line later traced crossing the Belgian border.
Police have opened a case for “incitement to hatred aggravated by racial or religious discrimination.” Alim Burahee, president of a Paris mosque targeted in the attack, said, “It’s catastrophic and disappointing to see such things. If they can do that, what else could they do?”
Muslim rights groups say fear among mosque-goers has grown as racist violence rises. According to France’s human rights commission, 181 anti-Muslim acts were recorded in the first half of 2025, an 81% increase compared to the same period last year.
France, home to more than 6 million Muslims, has seen several violent incidents in recent months, including the killing of a Tunisian barber by his neighbor in June and the stabbing of a Malian man inside a mosque in April.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said the pig-head incident marked “a new and sad milestone in the rise of anti-Muslim hatred.”
