August 3, 2012
French Jewish leaders ‘outraged’ by mosque desecration near Toulouse
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Blood stains outside the entrance of the Es Salam mosque in Montauban, near Toulouse, on Aug. 1. Photo by REUTERS/Bruno Martin
French Jewish leaders are calling the tossing of two pig heads into a mosque not far from Toulouse “an odious desecration.”
Worshippers at the Salam mosque in Montauban in southern France discovered two pig heads at the entrance to the building yesterday.
On March 15, Muslim extremist Mohammed Merah murdered two French soldiers in the city. Days later, he murdered three children and rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse, which is about 31 miles north of Montauban.
The CRIF, the umbrella organization of French Jewish communities, called the incident “an odious desecration” and said it “identifies with the outrage of the Muslim community, which was deeply offended by the act perpetrated during Ramadan.”
The Jewish communities of France convey their “sincerest sentiments of friendship” to the Muslim community, the statement said.
France’s Union of Jewish Students also said in a statement that it was appalled by an incident that had occurred in a “worrying climate of hatred.”
According to AFP, the incident on Thursday was the first of its kind in the Tarn-et-Garonne region, leading to speculation it was a response to Merah’s March shooting spree.
In 2009, unknown individuals hung pig’s feet outside a mosque in Castres, about 75 miles southeast of Montauban.
