Satanism on the rise in France - official report
23 March 2005

PARIS: Satanism is gaining ground in France, leading to an increase in
cemetery desecrations and anti-Christian rituals and developing links
between disaffected youths and neo-Nazi groups, an official report said
yesterday.


An official group that tracks religious sects said it had noted small
bands of youths were emerging with shared interests in black metal music,
deviant sexual practices, magic or vampires.

They often left satanic symbols such as inverse crosses, pentagrams and
demonic numbers at scenes of their crimes.

"One can reasonably speak of a marked progression of this phenomenon,"
said the report by the Interministerial Mission To Observe and Fight
Sectarian Excesses which was handed over to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre
Raffarin.

"The police have noted a significant rise in profanations of cemeteries
that are clearly marked as satanic - 23 cases from January to August 2004
compared to 18 for the whole year of 2003," it wrote.

Cemetery profanations have been especially frequent in eastern French
regions such as Alsace, where the report said satanist groups had linked
up with neo-Nazis.

Swastikas and satanic symbols have been found spray-painted on tombstones
in Christian, Jewish and Muslim cemeteries in eastern France over the past
year.

The report gave no overall figures for satanists in France but said that
Satanism was also on the rise in Scandinavia, Italy, Germany, Spain,
Russia, Greece and Poland.

There were no structured satanist networks in France but youths had access
to a wide array of information on the Internet, it said.

Satanists in southern France frequently crossed the border into Spain to
hold rave parties in Catalonia, "where they can indulge more freely in
their rituals," the report added.

It said the number of deaths linked to satanic practices was limited, with
two suicides and two murders linked to them in the past two years.


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