French President Francois Hollande on Thursday gave a statement assuring Muslims that France respects both their community and their religion but said the country remains firm on its commitment to free speech.

Hollande's speech at the Institute of the Arab World in Paris comes a week after Muslim extremists launched a series of attacks in the French capital that left 17 people dead. The statement presents a stark balance between the nation's commitment to protect its Muslim community and to uphold freedom of expression even if it offends Muslims, according to Reuters.

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"France is a friend, but it is a country that has rules, principles and values," Hollande told the Arab community. "One of them is not negotiable - freedom and democracy."

Just hours after the statement was delivered, two men were shot dead by Belgian police during raids that targeted an Islamist group which reportedly was on the verge of carrying out a big-scale terror attack, the report detailed.

Meanwhile, the French government is preparing to beef up the nation's security by stationing police guard in media headquarters, Jewish institutions and other similar buildings. Since last week's deadly shooting at the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, mosques in the area have been the target of attacks, French Muslims reported.

In a separate attack at a kosher market last Friday, Muslim employee Lassana Bathily was proclaimed a hero after he hid shoppers to protect them from an Islamist assailant who had already killed four individuals in the vicinity. The gunman was killed by police in the encounter.

As reward for his heroic act, Bathily would receive French citizenship, according to the Interior Ministry.

In the wake of the deadly incidents, Charlie Hebdo has printed more caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in its Wednesday publication, a move that the Middle East has decried. Despite this, readers flocked to magazine stands to grab their own copies of the "survivor's edition" and its second batch was already sold out by Thursday morning.

TagsFrancois Hollande, French Muslims, Charlie Hebdo, free speech, Islam