Jew Arrested Over Arson at Paris Jewish center

Police headquarters refused to identify the man taken into custody in connection with the August 22 attack, but investigators said the man had worked on occasion as a guard at the center, but that management wanted to fire him.

Investigators suggested that "resentment" over the loss of his job could have motivated the suspect, in his 50s, to torch the eastern Paris center out of revenge, but that explanation was not confirmed, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The man — who was placed in preventive detention for up to 48 hours — was "more or less homeless" and "mentally unstable", the sources said.

On August 22, the Jewish center was gutted in a massive blaze, and swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans like "The world would be pure if there were no more Jews" were scrawled inside.

Second Case

The incident led the French government to declare war on racism and prompted a snap visit to Paris by Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who urged tougher punishment in France for the perpetrators of anti-Semitic acts.

There were even reports about an allegedly Islamic group claiming responsibility for the arson attack, but French Muslims swiftly dismissed the claim insisting it was very much likely a “plot”.

“The plot is orchestrated to turn the French public opinion against the [sizable] French community,” sources with the French Council of the Muslim Faith told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, August 24.

Police said Monday the fire could have been an "inside job", but were still looking into several theories.

The police statements apparently confirmed a report in Le Figaro newspaper Monday, which said investigators were no longer treating the fire as an anti-Semitic attack, but were looking for a mentally unstable Jewish man.

It was the second case in less than two months that alleged anti-Semitic attacks lead to a stir in the French society, with fingers of accusation swiftly directed at the Muslim community, only to turn out to be either a hoax or an act of inside revenge.

Last month, a 23-year-old woman who claimed she had been the victim of a vicious anti-Semitic assault later admitted she had made up the entire incident, and was given a four-month suspended sentence for lying about it.

The purported assault had sparked outrage across France and sharp condemnations from across the political spectrum.

Pascal Boniface, the director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Studies, commented then saying that the extensive coverage the hoax had received in French media demonstrated a double-standard approach in dealing with racist attacks in the European country.