PARIS
The French government is preparing to announce on Wednesday its plan regarding the Muslim community in France.
Ways to promote dialogue with France's Muslims, providing security for them, training Imams and funding mosques are the highlights of the plan due to be revealed Wednesday after the weekly ministerial meeting, said French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Tuesday.
A month and a half after the terror attacks in Paris that killed 17 people, attacks against Muslims have risen, making their protection an important goal for the government, Cazeneuve told reporters after a meeting with several representatives of the Muslim community.
"During the month of January alone, there were more anti-Muslim acts in France than there were throughout 2014," Cazeneuve told reporters. "They must be condemned with the greatest firmness."
Cazeneuve added that the French Council of the Muslim Faith, or CFCM, is willing to fight "against all acts of discrimination" as "the vast majority of France's Muslims in France are committed to the principles and values of the Republic."
The consultations come after French Prime Minister Manuel Valls' call earlier this month for "the reconsideration of the organization of the Islamic community in France."
Valls said that France "seeks to establish a model of Islam that is fully integrated, fully compatible with the values of the Republic."
France has an estimated 5 million Muslims, about 8 percent of the total population -- the largest Muslim community in Western Europe.
The head of CFCM and the rector of the Paris' Grand Mosque, Dalil Boubakeur, said he requested the support of the authorities to provide training for imams in order "to ensure that they do not spread extremist messages."
On Monday, Boubakeur boycotted the annual dinner organized by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, or CRIF, over a statement by its leader Roger Cukierman saying that "young Muslims were responsible for all violent crimes in France."
The vice president of CFCM told The Anadolu Agency that those comments can only unite the Muslims of France.
In a bid to fix the rift, French President Francois Hollande received both Jewish and Muslim leaders of the CRIF and CFCM on Tuesday afternoon.
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