Monday, June 14, 2004

Muslim Graves defiled in Strasbourg

More Bad News:

From Reuters:
A women crouches before the tomb of a loved one, desecrated in the night of Sunday to Monday, in a Strasbourg cemetery. More than 50 tombs in the Muslim section were defiled with neo-Nazi words. Swastikas sometimes along with the letters "HH" (for "Heil Hitler") and "88" (a neo-Nazi symbol), calls for the murder of the president of the regional Muslim Faith Council, Abdelhaq Nabaoui, and, on a cemetery wall, grafitti threatening the president of the Alsace Regional Council, Adrien Zeller (UMP): this latest desecration will futher heighten tensions in Alsace, where racist and anti-Semitic vandalism has occurred with increasing frequency in recent months.

Interior Minister de Villepin was to to arrive in Strasbourg toward noon on Monday to meet with the local representatives of the Muslim faith and of the other religions present in Alsace. "This cowardly act attacks the memory of the Muslim community and the most essential values of our country," he said in a written statement. The Jewish Student Union of France (UEJF) said it was "saddened outraged."

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