“France is experiencing its second shock in six months,” said Kamel Kabtane (rector of the Grand mosque of Lyon), Laid Bendidi (president of the regional Muslim council), and Azzedine Gaci (rector of the Villeurbanne mosque), in a joint statement following the attack in Isere. They “wish to express their condemnation of the diabolical attack carried out during the month of Ramadan at the Air Products of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier factory.”
The three religious leaders called on “all mosques in the Rhône-Alpes region to use Friday prayer to call on Muslims to unambiguously fight and condemn all extremism and terrorism.” They added that no one should “tolerate that which the messengers of hatred do in the name of Islam,” and hope for a mobilization “all together, everyone together, to combat these criminals who want to weaken our country.”
