Sarkozy listens to French Muslim leaders in Annecy mosque

PARIS, March 9 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has pledged to provide protection to mosques in France on par with Jewish synagogues following Friday’s arson attacks on two mosques in southeastern France.

Visiting the mosque attacked in the city of Annecy, capital of Haute-Savoie departement, Rhône-Alpes region, Sarkozy said late Monday, March 8, that France will not tolerate that any  citizen, Muslim or Jewish, has this sense of fear due to his/her religious beliefs.

“Everyone is entitled to live in peace and practice their religion [in France],” Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Sarkozy as saying.

The first fire engulfed an entire 80-square meter prayer hall in a mosque in the city of Synod at dawn Friday, March 5.

The second seriously damaged the heating system of the Annecy’s mosque before fire fighters got the situation under control.

Sarkozy said when a worship place is set ablaze, it is a cause of concern for the French society.

He said the French government does feel for the Muslim community, saying his visit to Annecy was a case in point.

Annecy’s mosque after the arson attack

French President Jacques Chirac condemned the attacks Saturday, March 6, and expressed his sympathy and support to the Muslim community.

But French Muslim leaders criticized the political establishment for failing to join a silent demonstration in protest at the incident.

“No leading political figure came,” said Kamel Kabtane, the head of the regional Muslim council in Rhone-Alpes district.

French daily Le Monde counted the attacks on mosques and Islamic centers during the last few months.

In March 2003, an Islamic center in the northern city of Nancy was ravaged by a fire. In the same month, a gas cylinder was found in a prayer room in the southern city of Nice.

In June 2003, a number of mosques were sprayed blue, red, and white – the three colors which make the French flag – and large crosses drawn across the walls of a mosque in the northeastern city of Colmar.

The hall prayer of a mosque in the southern city of Montpellier came under an arson attack in October 2003.

There are some six million Muslims in France and around 1500 mosques, Islamic centers and hall prayers.