صراط عشق صراط عشق
A Muslim cemetery in Mulhouse, east of France, has been vandalized on Sunday evening. The Muslim community in France has again been stunned by yet another Islamophobic act as vandals defaced the Muslim cemetery in Mulhouse, a commune in the the Haut-Rhin department in eastern France.
Mayor of Mulhouse Michele Lutz condemned the acts of vandalism that took place on Sunday evening in the Muslim section of the city’s cemetery. The mayor said authorities found elements of decoration of tombs, flowers, vases, and statuettes, scatted on the ground in the Muslim section of the cemetery. “Let me add that the graves as such have not been desecrated,” she said, condemning the acts. “A grave is a symbol that must be respected. I understand that the families were shocked by what they saw. A cemetery must remain a place of meditation and serenity,” she added.
The MP of Haut-Rhin, Bruno Fuchs from the Democratic Movement, also expressed solidarity with the Muslim community, condemning the acts of vandalism. He also called on the victims to go to the police station to lodge a complaint. In response to the acts of vandalism, the French Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM) strongly condemned the desecration of Muslim graves.
The Muslim council said that the graves were almost all ransacked. “The CFCM expresses its solidarity with the families and calls on public authorities to do everything possible to find the perpetrators of this abject act,” the council said. France has witnessed a wave of Islamophobic acts in recent months, with perpetrators particularly targeting Mosques. In November, two Mosques in Besencon were vandalized; the attackers used red paint to draw the crosses of Lorraine on the walls of the Mosques.
The Lorraine cross symbolizes French resistance to Nazi occupation in the 1940s, suggesting the vandals of the two Mosques were influenced by the far-right claim that Muslims are “invading” France. Such incidents have become commonplace in France, with Muslim associations and activists asking for justice to ensure the safety of the European country’s Muslim community.
Anti-Islam sentiments have long been a marker of French political life in the past two decades. But the trend has gained more political currency and legitimacy in recent years as both left- and right-wing political parties appear to espouse a largely similar discourse on mass migration and “Islamist separatism.”
