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France shocked by attack on Muslim war graves
AFP ^ | 06 Apr 08

Posted on 04/06/2008 7:16:58 PM PDT by infantrywhooah



ABLAIN-SAINT-NAZAIRE, France (AFP) — Vandals desecrated 148 Muslim graves in France's biggest war cemetery, hanging a pig's head from one tombstone and daubing slogans insulting France's Muslim justice minister, officials said Sunday.

President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed "profound outrage" at the "sordid" attack on the Muslim quarter of the Notre Dame de Lorette cemetery, near the northern town of Arras on Saturday night. He vowed that those responsible would be punished.

The cemetery is France's biggest military graveyards and commemorates tens of thousands of victims of a series of long and bloody battles for control of northern France at the start of World War I.

The attack came almost exactly a year after a similar incident in which neo-Nazi vandals scrawled swastikas on 52 of the cemetery's Muslim graves.

"This is the most inadmissible kind of racism and the president of the republic shares the pain of France's entire Muslim community," said a statement issued by the presidency. France's Muslim community is Europe's largest at around five million.

"This hateful act is also a attack on the memory of all veterans of World War I, beyond the faith of each one," the statement added.

The state prosecutor for Arras, Jean-Pierre Valensi, said "the slogans directly target Islam and they gravely insult Rachida Dati, the justice minister," who is the daughter of north African immigrants.

He said a pig's head was hung from one of the graves.

Dati issued a statement condemning a "hateful act" that "hurts the memory of our dead, of the veterans who gave their lives for France".

"Through its racist connotations, it is an assault on the values of the republic and an insult to all French people."

Muslim community leaders were allowed to visit the scene on Sunday. "This is shameful to see," said the regional head of the French Council for the Muslim Religion, Bahssine Saaidi.

"We need to work together... to stop this problem of racism," he added.

"These are probably the tombs of heroes who fell in combat. This is a hateful, scandalous act, an insult to all Muslims," Dalil Boubaker, rector of the Paris mosque, told France Info radio.

The MRAP anti-racism group said the attack was "a worrying sign of an ill that is gaining ground with a degree of impunity: islamophobia" and warned that France needed to face up to the problem.

SOS Racism said it was taking legal action to demand the dismantling of the neo-Nazi group behind the April 2007 attack on the cemetery.

Two youths aged 18 and 21, both members of the group, were jailed for a year over that attack. A 16-year-old also received a six-week prison sentence.

The Elysee said Sarkozy had called for a swift inquiry and "for those responsible for this act to be punished as they deserve."

Around 100 French gendarmes were at the site to gather evidence. Jean-Marie Bockel, the secretary of state for veteran's affairs, said the government would review security at Notre Dame de Lorette.

"This is horrific, and for the 90th anniversary of the end of the 1914-1918 war. This is worse than the last time, it is abominable," said Jean-Paul Doue, one of 3,800 volonteer honorary guards at the cemetery.

Inaugurated in 1925, the Notre Dame de Lorette cemetery houses the remains of some 40,000 soldiers, half of them in named graves. The Muslim quarter includes 576 tombs, grouped together and turned towards Mecca.

Prior to 2007, there were four incidents involving the desecration of Muslim graves in northern and eastern France in 2004, and one in 2003.

There have also been several attacks on Jewish graves in cemeteries across France in recent years.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: fakehatecrimes; france; frenchmuslims; memorialdesecration
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1 posted on 04/06/2008 7:16:59 PM PDT by infantrywhooah
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To: infantrywhooah

False flag operation.


2 posted on 04/06/2008 7:21:50 PM PDT by ikka
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To: infantrywhooah
Yo Sarkozy: Are you startin' to get the picture....?

You got some problems, man.....and most of them have first names like Mohammed, or Abdul..........

3 posted on 04/06/2008 7:25:37 PM PDT by Victor (If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert." -David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister)
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To: infantrywhooah
Desecrating graves is cowardly and despicable. The perps are scum of the Earth, just like the radical islamists.
4 posted on 04/06/2008 7:26:18 PM PDT by Mad_Tom_Rackham ("The land of the Free...Because of the Brave")
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
Desecrating graves is cowardly and despicable. The perps are scum of the Earth, just like the radical islamists.

I would bet the next mortgage payment that is WAS a radical Islamist who did this.

5 posted on 04/06/2008 7:27:48 PM PDT by Teacher317 (Thank you Dith Pran for showing us what Communism brings)
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To: infantrywhooah
"We need to work together... to stop this problem of racism," he added.

So now Muslim is a race?

6 posted on 04/06/2008 7:28:01 PM PDT by lilycicero (DefendOurMarines.org/DefendOurTroops.org)
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham

“The perps are scum of the Earth, just like the radical islamists.”

That’s no shiite!


7 posted on 04/06/2008 7:28:43 PM PDT by Rembrandt (We would have won Viet Nam w/o Dim interference.)
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To: infantrywhooah

Cue the “youths” to get out and burn more cars.


8 posted on 04/06/2008 7:30:14 PM PDT by South40 (Amnesty is a slap in the face to the USBP!)
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To: South40
Youts? Did you say youts?


9 posted on 04/06/2008 7:33:19 PM PDT by infantrywhooah (Hold your nose and vote in November. Even McCain is better than the alternatives)
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
Yeah, it would make more sense to destroy the property of living French Muslims a la the car burnings. /sar

Outrage!

10 posted on 04/06/2008 7:34:38 PM PDT by Carling (It's Danny, Sir)
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham

Although I agree, people that do this sort of thing are cowards, at least they are desecrating graves not associated with American dead, as is their usual want.


11 posted on 04/06/2008 7:35:55 PM PDT by doc1019 (God is in control ... not Global Warming.)
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To: infantrywhooah

Islam is not a religion. It is a political movement. Face the facts.


12 posted on 04/06/2008 7:46:21 PM PDT by taxesareforever (Never forget Matt Maupin)
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To: infantrywhooah

Islam is not a religion. It is a political movement. Face the facts.


13 posted on 04/06/2008 7:46:39 PM PDT by taxesareforever (Never forget Matt Maupin)
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To: taxesareforever
It's not even a political movement, it's a death cult.
14 posted on 04/06/2008 7:47:20 PM PDT by infantrywhooah (Hold your nose and vote in November. Even McCain is better than the alternatives)
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To: infantrywhooah

“This is the most inadmissible kind of racism and the president of the republic shares the pain of France’s entire Muslim community.”

Since when is a religion a race? Unless he is suggesting that only a particular race is capable of believing in Islam.


15 posted on 04/06/2008 7:54:01 PM PDT by Soothesayer (I'm breaking out of this hand basket!)
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To: infantrywhooah
SOS Racism said it was taking legal action to demand the dismantling of
the neo-Nazi group behind the April 2007 attack on the cemetery.


Neo-Nazis "descerating" Muslim graves?

More likely trying to honor them as fellow travelers, along with
the Muslim divisions that served under The (NAZI) Third Reich.

Or just expressing ire against their competitors in hatred
of Jews?
16 posted on 04/06/2008 7:55:15 PM PDT by VOA
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To: VOA
OOPS...
Neo-Nazis desecrated "descerating" Muslim graves?
17 posted on 04/06/2008 7:56:39 PM PDT by VOA
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To: taxesareforever

That is true. But Islam the religion at least makes more sense than Islam the race.


18 posted on 04/06/2008 7:59:23 PM PDT by Soothesayer (I'm breaking out of this hand basket!)
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To: infantrywhooah

“President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed “profound outrage” at the “sordid” attack on the Muslim quarter..”

Hey Nicolas, did you express “profound outrage” at the murder of the Catholic priest in Baghdad? I thought so.


19 posted on 04/06/2008 8:00:24 PM PDT by 353FMG (Vote for the Candidate who will do the least damage to our country.)
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To: infantrywhooah

Do you people not realize that these people are the enemies of our culture, our religion and our freedoms?

While we are using our energy defending their cemeteries from pigs’ heads, they are planning and effecting the transformation of Europe, Britain, and the U.S. into foul Muslim nations.

It is time for them to go make Muslim “paradises” of Iraq, Somalia, Egypt, Sudan, Iran and other nations from which they emigrated.


20 posted on 04/06/2008 8:17:36 PM PDT by TFMcGuire (Either you are an American, or you are a liberal)
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