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Rabat – France has opened an investigation after a mosque in Sucy-en-Brie, 15.4 km from the center of Paris, received disturbing Islamophobic threats.
A man left a voicemail, in which he insulted Muslims and threatened to slit their throats.
“You are filthy Muslim sh****(…). You want to play the victims, filthy pigs… We’re going to slit your throats,” the caller said on the phone’s voicemachine, according to Le Parisian.
Driss Soussi, president of the Sucy Muslim Cultural Association, said that they immediately reported the incident, which led to the arrest of a suspect who was taken into police custody on Saturday.
Le Parisian said the call took place on Thursday last week, and the caller left the message at 9 p.m., hurling insults and threats.
Following the call, the mosque received a man who claimed that the caller was his nephew.
“He seemed apologetic,” Le Parisian reported, noting that the same man sent an email suggesting a “way to make amends for his nephew’s wrongdoing.”
On Saturday, the mosque president filed a complaint, prompting an investigation into the case.
“The only rule in these kinds of situations is to report it to the police… It’s up to them to assess the seriousness of the offense,” the mosque’s president said.
On Sunday, police tracked down and identified the man who sent an email and summoned him.
After preliminary investigations, the man confessed that it was he who made the hateful and Islamophobic comment, claiming he was drunk at the time.
Soussi commended the police’s swift response, noting that the act is a “very rare” in Sucy.
The Islamophobic threats came in an already fragile situation triggered by the heinous La Grand Combe mosque murder, in which a Muslim man was stabbed to death while praying.
The perpetrator, Olivier A. killed a 22-year-old man identified as Aboubaker Cisse, stabbing him 4o to 50 times inside the mosque where he was performing the morning prayer in April.
The Islamophobic attack sparked frustration and anger among the Muslim community in France, which called for justice for Cisse and all Muslims facing Islamophobic attacks and acts.
While some French officials condemned the Islamophobic attacks, others have side-stepped calling out the act for being Islamophobic.
However, French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou continues to stress that the heinous attack against a Muslim at a mosque last month was indeed an act of Islamophobia.
“The facts are clear: A 22-year-old man was murdered in a mosque while he was praying. His attacker filed the killing while hurling insults against Allah. So I ask: If this isn’t hatred directed at Islam, then what is it?” he said in a recent interview.
