Muslim Religious Sites Attacked In France After Charlie Hebdo Massacre

A heart formed by melted candles is on the ground of the Old-Port to pay tribute to the victims of the satirical newspaper "Charlie-Hebdo", in Marseille, southern France, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, a day after masked g... A heart formed by melted candles is on the ground of the Old-Port to pay tribute to the victims of the satirical newspaper "Charlie-Hebdo", in Marseille, southern France, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, a day after masked gunmen stormed the offices of a satirical newspaper and killed 12 people. French police hunted Thursday for two heavily armed men — one with a terrorism conviction and a history in jihadi networks — in the methodical killing of 12 people at a satirical newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad. (AP Photo/Claude Paris) MORE LESS
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Mosques and a Muslim prayer hall in two French towns were attacked early Thursday morning, the Agence France-Presse reported.

The attacks came just a day after a vicious terrorist attack on the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo in Paris left 10 staff members and two policemen dead. Authorities have named two French nationals, one of them with ties to radical Islamists, as suspects in the attack.

After midnight on Wednesday, three blank grenades were hurled at a mosque in Le Mans, a city west of Paris, the news agency reported. One of the mosque’s windows also had a bullet hole in it.

A prayer hall was attacked not long after evening prayers. Several shots were fired at it but the hall was empty, according to what the prosecutor in Port-la-Nouvelle told AFP. The hall is located in southern France.

A third incident near a mosque reportedly involved an explosion at a kebab shop in an eastern French town on Thursday morning.

Fortunately, none of the incidents resulted in casualties. However, local prosecutors have described the attacks as “criminal” acts, AFP reported.

Islamic groups in France asked Muslims to observe a moment of silence on Thursday in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack. The groups have also asked imams to condemn the perpetuation of “terrorism.”

The search for two of the gunmen involved in the Charlie Hebdo attack continued on Thursday.

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  1. Well, this is certain to help everything.

    “local prosecutors have described the attacks as ‘criminal’ acts”

    And yet they are not. They are domestic terrorism, just as much as the attack they’re using as an excuse. There’s a reason Hammurabi’s Code went out of fashion.

  2. Quelle surprise.

  3. Avatar for dbhuff dbhuff says:

    Yeah, this won’t help, just keep the antagonism drawing in folks who weren’t previously involved. You think the attacker don’t like Muslim sites being attacked, they love it!

    My idea is that every newpaper in France (maybe around the world) should have a Charlie Hebdo day where they publish copies of CH cartoons mocking Islam on the front page. You go after one, they all respond. Then the attackers lose, they can’t blow up all the newspapers.

  4. Not helpful, but at the same time not surprising.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

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