French Muslims to Rally against 'Barbaric' Hostage Execution

French Muslims were on Thursday called to rally against the "barbaric" beheading of a hostage by Algerian jihadists with links to radical Islamic State militants.

Dalil Boubakeur, the president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) -- an official representative for the country's estimated five million Muslims -- called for the gathering at the Paris Mosque on Friday afternoon.

He urged Muslims and their friends to join a "moment of contemplation and solidarity" after the beheading of 55-year-old Herve Gourdel, which has plunged the country into shock and grief.

France's Muslim community, the largest in Europe, has spoken out strongly in recent weeks against the Islamic State group, which seized large parts of Syria and Iraq where it has committed widespread atrocities.

The CFCM condemned the beheading as a "barbaric crime ... an act reprehensible to all universal human values."

The Muslim community is battling to combat radicalization that has seen hundreds head to Syria and Iraq to fight with the IS group.

France is on high alert for the return of these fighters who they fear may commit acts of terrorism on home soil.

"This is an unprecedented threat which requires great composure," Prime Minister Manuel Valls told parliament Wednesday.

"And I want to make it clear, France makes a clear distinction between Islam which is France's second religion ... and Islamism, including its terrorist extension, jihadism, which is nothing but a violent and perverted message which goes against the universal values of Islam."