Muslims in France saw Islamophobic hate crimes triple in 2015 after the January attack on the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Wednesday.
More than 400 hate crimes against Muslims were reported in France last year compared to 133 reported to the police in 2014, while attacks on Christian sites in the country also rose.
While anti-Semitic attacks dropped slightly, the threat against Jews still remained at "high levels" with 806 cases reported, the minister told Catholic daily La Croix, according to The Local.
According to the interior minister, more than 200 attacks against Muslims occurred within the first three months of 2015, following the Charlie Hebdo attack and the siege at a kosher supermarket in Paris.
In fact, within a week of the Charlie Hebdo attack, over 50 cases of hate crimes against Muslims were reported in France, including throwing of grenades at Islamic buildings and use of verbal threats and insults.
There were 810 attacks on religious Christian sites in France last year, the minister said.
"I cannot accept such acts -- they must be severely punished," Cazeneuve said.
France saw its deadliest terror attack since World War II on 13 November when Isis jihadists carried out simultaneous attacks in Paris, killing 130 people.
The attack also sparked Islamophobic incidents, with a Muslim prayer hall in the French island of Corsica being ransacked in December.
On Tuesday, United Nations experts called France's state of emergency declared after the 13 November attacks "excessive and disproportionate", according to France24.
France declared a state of emergency for three months following the terror attacks, and also brought in an electronic surveillance law to counter terror threats.
