A 17-year-old Jewish boy was severely beaten in Paris on Saturday evening in what family and the authorities are calling a serious act of anti-Semitism.

According to a French Jewish group, the boy was surrounded by some 15 people while walking home in a largely Jewish neighborhood. He was easily identifiable as a Jew as he was wearing a kippa. The gang proceeded to beat the youth - some reports said with iron rods - until he was unconscious. He later slipped into a coma from which he woke on Tuesday.

French police told the Associated Press that they had questioned five people in connection to the attack, but that the investigation is still ongoing.

Also at the weekend, a synagogue and a Jewish elementary school in western Canada were defaced with graffiti and hate messages.

In related news, the results of a survey conducted recently in Britain and published in the Sunday Telegraph revealed that Muslim youth in the United Kingdom are increasingly radicalized.

The report noted that radical Islamic leaders operating in the UK are having far greater success than in the past in attracting young Muslims to their causes. The researchers who conducted the survey warned that the trend is so severe that they fear the number of British Muslims willing to participate in terrorism may have increased significantly.