Jewish leaders who met Wednesday with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon in his office said he assured them that Judaism wasn't targeted in his controversial comments about the ritual slaughter but they insisted they would keep an eye on government policy.
Fillon told France’s Chief Rabbi Gilles Bernheim and Paris Central Consistory President Joel Mergui that he had not did not intend to abolish halal and kosher meat slaughter in France and that he had not meant to stigmatise their community.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon caused an uproar on Tuesday when he said the Jewish and Muslim "ancestral traditions" of ritual slaughter were outdated and unjustified.
"The Prime Minister clearly explained that he understood we were hurt," Mergui said after the meeting. "He explained very clearly that there was no intention to question ritual slaughter in France."
"He denied wanting to hurt us. He denied wanting to take aim at religion or the Jewish community," Bernheim added.
Fillon’s declarations were the latest in a series of divisive comments by politicians about the religious practices of France's ethnic minorities, seen as a bid to attract extreme right-wing voters ahead of a two-round election in April and May.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brought the issue of ritually prepared meat into his faltering reelection campaign last weekend, defended Fillon in a television interview on Tuesday and said the debate about religious slaughter customs was overdone.
Fillon was due to receive French Muslim Council President Mohammad Moussaoui and Paris Grand Mosque Rector Dalil Boubakeur on Thursday to give the same message to the Muslim community.
France is home to western Europe's largest Muslim minority, officially estimated at least four million, and its largest Jewish community, estimated at up to 600,000.