The French Muslim Council urged the government yesterday to ban a far-right group that occupied a mosque on Saturday and issued a “declaration of war” against what it called the Islamisation of France.
Council president Mohammed Moussaoui said the organisation 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 immigration from outside Europe. – (Reuters)