French politicians condemn vandals who defaced mosque with graffiti
Politicians in France condemned the people who defaced the walls of a mosque with Islamophobic graffiti shortly before the start of Ramadan.
France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the vandalism was unacceptable, after a caretaker and worshippers at the mosque in Rennes, capital of Brittany, discovered the graffiti on Sunday.
It included slogans attacking Islam and immigration and a call for Catholicism to be made the state religion in France.
Mr Darmanin visited the city on Sunday evening to show his solidarity with French Muslims.
“Freedom of religion in France is a fundamental freedom,” he said on Twitter.
Mayor Nathalie Appere said the anti-Muslim inscriptions on the walls of the mosque and cultural centre had no place in Rennes or in France.
“All my support to the people of Rennes, and particularly to the believers shocked by these shameful acts,” she said.
Valerie Boyer, a member of France’s Senate, also condemned the vandalism.
“Shame on those who are responsible for these anti-Muslim acts in Rennes,” she said.
The prosecutor’s office in Rennes began an investigation.
Mohammed Zaidouni, the president of the local regional council of Muslims, condemned what he called the “obscene phrases”.
“We are the children of the republic and we find ourselves facing hate, violence and barbarism,” he said.
Ahmed Ait Chikh, president of the cultural centre in Rennes, told French media that the vandalism was a “despicable and cowardly act”.
Abdallah Zekri, president of the National Observatory Against Islamophobia, denounced what he said was the anti-Islam climate in France.
“Unfortunately, the declarations of certain politicians are only making things worse,” he said.
In the western city of Nantes, the door of a mosque was destroyed by fire on Thursday.
On Friday, a 24-year-old neo-Nazi was charged for making threats against the mosque in Le Mans, also in western France.