Taroudant - Racist demonstrators ransacked on Friday night a Muslim prayer hall in Ajaccio, the capital of the French island of Corsica, and attempted to burn copies of the Koran.
Taroudant – Racist demonstrators ransacked on Friday night a Muslim prayer hall in Ajaccio, the capital of the French island of Corsica, and attempted to burn copies of the Koran.
According to the police, angry crowd of protesters ransacked and vandalized a Muslim place of worship and injured a police officer and two firefighters.
They broke the glass door of the Mosque and entered the place of worship, “ransacking it and partially burning books including copies of the Koran,” regional official Francois Lalanne was quoted by AFP as saying.
“Fifty prayer books were thrown out on the street,” Lalanne said, adding that some of the pages were burnt.
AFP reported that the protesters “shouted slogans in Corsican meaning ‘Arabs get out!’ and ‘This is our home!’”
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls wrote on Twitter that the break-in to the Muslim place of worship was “an unacceptable desecration”, condemning the “intolerable attack” on the firefighters, and calling on Corsicans to respect the law of the Republic.
Corse : après l’agression intolérable de pompiers, profanation inacceptable d’un lieu de prière musulman. Respect de la loi républicaine.
— Manuel Valls (@manuelvalls) December 25, 2015
The same source reported that the French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve considered the attack on the Muslim prayer hall a sign of “racism and xenophobia,” while condemning the assault against police officers and firefighters.
Cazneuve hoped that “the authors of the violence would be identified and arrested as soon as possible.”
Retrouvez mon communiqué de presse sur la situation en #Corse pic.twitter.com/PLdO7Bdo6S
— Bernard Cazeneuve (@BCazeneuve) December 25, 2015
One day before the Muslim place of worship was ransacked and their holy books were burned and vandalized in Corsica, a dozen of Muslim men stood outside a church in France to protect Christians from any potential attacks during midnight Christmas Mass.
