A Parisian man in his 60s was assaulted on the streets of the French capital and labelled an “unbeliever” for carrying gifts wrapped up in Christmas wrapping paper.
The assault occurred in the 14th arrondissement of Paris on Wednesday at around 6:20 pm after the unidentified man in his 60s had been out shopping for presents, Le Parisien reports.
According to the victim, he had just left the Alesia metro station and was carrying the gifts, which were wrapped in traditional Christmas wrapping paper, when a man approached him, grabbed him, and then slapped him across the face, forcing his glasses to the floor.
Immediately after the assault, the victim claimed the attacker told him, “This is what we do to the unbelievers,” and left. The elderly man then went to a nearby police station and police say they are now investigating the incident as a religious hate crime.
While Islam counts Jesus as a prophet, the Christmas holiday has been a source of consternation for some Muslims in Europe such as a Muslim pupil at the Johanneum Gymnasium in the German city of Lüneburg who demanded the school stop singing Christmas carols that were not compatible with Islam.
The school decided to cancel the singing of Christmas carols with the headmaster arguing that teachers needed to take a sensitive approach to students of minority faiths.
In some cases, Muslims have reacted with vitriol towards fellow Muslims who have celebrated the holiday like British boxer Amir Khan who received death threats for posting pictures of a Christmas tree he had put up in his home last year.
Christmas markets in Germany have also been the target of radical Islamic terrorists, including the 2016 Berlin Christmas market terror attack which saw a dozen people killed by Tunisian failed asylum seeker Anis Amri.
Last year, Austrian authorities foiled another attack targetting a Christmas market in Graz. The suspect, a 25-year-old Bosnian man, was allegedly plotting to drive a vehicle through the packed market in the same style as Amri had the year before.