French Muslim Council seeks ban of 'Generation Identitaire'
Categories: Latest News
Tuesday October 23 2012
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News Agency Reuters reports on the request lodged by the French Muslim Council with France’s Interior Ministry to ban the far right group responsible for the storming and occupation of a mosque in Poitiers at the weekend. |
From Reuters:
“CFCM President Mohammed Moussaoui said the Council also wanted better protection for mosques and Muslim cemeteries against racist attacks, which he said jumped sharply in 2011 and continued to rise this year.
“Some 73 protesters from a movement called Identity Group seized a mosque in the western city of Poitiers on Saturday and unfurled a banner referring to Charles Martel’s historic defeat of advancing Muslim troops there in 732.
“They stayed for more than six hours before police ejected them.
“In a video posted on its website, the movement issued what it called a “declaration of war” on multiculturalism. It also called for a referendum to block further immigration from outside Europe and further construction of mosques in France
“We demand the dissolution of this group,” Moussaoui said.
“The public prosecutor’s office in Poitiers has placed four of the protesters under judicial investigation for spreading racial hate and discrimination.
“Moussaoui said the protest, the first time a mosque in France had been occupied like that, represented “a new escalation in violence against Muslims”.”
The submission by the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, detailing anti-Muslim hate crimes and incidents in France, to the OSCE for its Annual Hate Crime Report 2011 can be found here.