CRIF, the umbrella representative group of Jewish organizations in France, expressed dismay after French Prime Minister Francois Fillon urged Muslims and Jews to consider scrapping what he called "outdated" halal and kosher slaughter rules.
Richard Prasquier, head of CRIF, said that he was "shocked" by Fillon's "stupefying" declaration.
"Even if he said that as a personal view, when you are Prime Minister, it is considered as an official word," Prasquier said, recalling the separation of church and state in France.
Fillon’s comments came as President Nicolas Sarkozy and his ministers kept up their efforts to woo extreme-right voters from the anti-immigrant National Front led by anti-immigrant Marine Le Pen ahead of the April-May presidential election.
Le Pen launched the halal debate last month when she claimed that all meat from abattoirs in the Paris region was prepared using Islamic halal traditions.
It later emerged that these abattoirs mostly supplied local Muslim butchers and that most meat sold in Paris came from outside the region.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) on Tuesday slammed the use of Muslims as "scapegoats" in the French election
campaign in which halal slaughter has become a hot-button issue.
The CFCM, asked about Fillon's comment on halal, said it "does not accept that Islam and Muslims be used as scapegoats in this (election) campaign".