Islamophobic attacks continue across France
By Alaaddin Dogru
ANKARA (AA): Islamophobic attacks continue across France with two separate incidents reported last week.
A Muslim butcher and grocery store that sells halal products in the southwestern province of Lot-et-Garonne was targeted on Sunday night.
Setting the store in Bon-Encontre town on fire, arsonists drew two swastikas on the wall.
The town fire brigade reported that the store was completely burnt, but no one was harmed.
The public prosecutor initiated an investigation on the attack.
In the other attack that took place in the southwestern province of Toulouse, a pig head and skin was left in front of an Islamic community center.
On Monday, when Djamel Sekkak arrived to open his Muslim funeral business at the avenue du Toec, in Toulouse, he discovered a dead boar, with its organs emptied, near a road sign, near his funeral business.
“It’s unacceptable, shameful… It’s bullying. The climate is unhealthy. I don’t do politics but at the moment, there are some who are throwing oil on the fire. Today, my children are worried. I am moved. It hurts me,” said Sekkak to L’Opinion Indépendante.
” How can I work under these conditions? I have 4 bodies that need to be buried. But how do you properly welcome bereaved families? We work in very complicated conditions. Fortunately, I received many messages of support,” added Muslim funeral director.
Speaking to local media, Abdellatif Mellouki, a Muslim community leader, drew attention to rising Islamophobic attacks across the country.
“The wild boar is the symbol of the pig that Muslims do not eat,” said Mellouki. This carcass “is like defiling a tomb or a place of worship, it is a stupid and unacceptable act.”
Meanwhile, the European Collective for Struggle against Islamophobia, a non-profit advocacy group, linked the attacks with a TV program named Zone Interdite that particularly focuses on the alleged threat of radical Islamism.
* Writing by Ahmet Gencturk in Ankara
Additional report by The Muslim News
[Map of France/Creative Commons]
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