"In A Paris Suburb, Jews And Muslims Live In A Fragile Harmony"

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The attack on a satirical magazine in Paris last week raised questions about if and when there should be limits to free speech. This morning Pope Francis weighed in. He told reporters while both freedom of religion and freedom of expression are both fundamental human rights, there are limits. As he put it, you can't provoke, you can't insult the faith of others.

The violence last week hit a country with the largest Muslim and Jewish communities in Western Europe. Many Muslims fear a backlash and many Jews fear they're still a target. Lauren Frayer spent a day in a Paris suburb where immigrant Muslims and Jews have lived together for decades.

LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: I've come to the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, which is famous for its Jewish and Muslim communities living more or less in harmony. But the first thing I notice off the train from Paris - there are no Je Suis Charlie signs here.

ABDEL NOUR: People think, we are not Charlie. Me, I'm not Charlie.

FRAYER: Abdel Nour is waiting at the train station to pick up his wife. He likes to say his family blends both communities in Sarcelles.

FRAYER: Are you Muslim or Jew or Christian?

NOUR: I am Muslim. My wife is a Jew - Jew from Israel, not from here.

FRAYER: And she's a Jew. How does she feel?

NOUR: She's very sad. Like me - I am sad, too.

FRAYER: Sad about the attacks in Paris. But Abdel says in this community, where nearly everyone is religious, public support for Charlie Hebdo is risky.

NOUR: It's sensitive and it's not the same in Paris as here. Paris, people live good. Here, there's too much unemployment, they're looking for a life. They're sad about Charlie, but they're looking for first a life. After, they look for Charlie.

FRAYER: A squad of French police are parked in front of Sarcelles's main synagogue. A soldier with an automatic weapon paces back and forth in front of the synagogue's gate.

NOA FITOUSSI: It's quiet and peaceful, but I'm not sure if the police wasn't there that it would be the same.

FRAYER: Noa Fitoussi and her friends chat about last week's attacks over coffee across the street from the synagogue. Noa worries Sarcelles's peace is fragile. The town saw Muslim riots last summer. Others say such strife reinforces their Jewish identity. And with that, one of the women breaks out into song.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Singing, in foreign language).

FRAYER: Unlike most of Sarcelles's Jews who are of Algerian origin or Tunisian descent, Maria Ribeiro is a Portuguese immigrant.

MARIA RIBEIRO: (Foreign language spoken).

FRAYER: "Muslim radicals are trying to provoke us Jews," she says. "But we won't budge - we want to live in harmony with Muslims in Sarcelles. Our neighbors are not the people who did this."

FRAYER: In halal chicken shop near a kosher cafe, Muslim men sip sweet tea and speak a mix of French and Arabic.

ABU HUSSEIN SHUKRI: (Speaking Arabic).

FRAYER: "We're all one here in Sarcelles. Not Muslim, Catholic or Jew," says one man, Abu Hussein Shukri, speaking Arabic. He's originally from Egypt. One of Abu Hussein's friends, Ali Kayta from the Ivory Coast, hangs back listening but then confides.

ALI KAYTA: Complicated, difficult - relation is difficult.

FRAYER: Ali says the truth is doubt and fear have crept in. During my day in Sarcelles, everyone I met was either an Orthodox Jew or an observant Muslim. They spoke of harmony over coffee, but I didn't find any Jews and Muslims actually sharing their coffee together.

For NPR News I'm Lauren Frayer in Sarcelles, France.