A priest at the time of the Eucharist.

Drawing.

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MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP

  • Several Toulouse imams symbolically attended a Toussaint mass, three days after the Nice attack.

  • One of them denounced "people without mind or reason who want to make another interpretation of the Koran".

  • Mass was held in the popular district of Bagatelle, where interreligious dialogue is privileged.

The symbol is extremely strong three days after the attack on Notre-Dame Basilica in Nice which left three dead.

In Toulouse this Sunday, imams and their families participated in the All Saints' Mass given in the Saint-Esprit church in Bagatelle.

Among them, Lahoury Siali, the imam of the Al-Rahma mosque, in the neighboring district of Faourette.

“These people with no mind or reason want to interpret [the Quran].

We firmly reject it, ”he declared, speaking alongside Gérard Hall, the parish priest, about the jihadist attacks.

The imam said a prayer in Arabic in front of the Catholic faithful and stressed that Muslims were "the main victims of these people".

“We didn't mandate anyone, didn't give anyone power of attorney to speak on our behalf.

In the name of what philosophy, what spirituality, you come to take the life of innocent people?

“Lahouary Siali was indignant.

An ecumenical food bank

Father Hall considers that the presence of imams at his mass was "important", in particular in the continuity of the interreligious actions of the sector such as the food bank set up for the first confinement by the parish, the two mosques and the Baptist church of this popular district of the Pink City.

The parish priest admits that cartoons “can hurt people.

Me, he said, when we caricature Christ, I am hurt, but we are not going to kill or ban freedom of expression for that ”.

Friday Mgr Robert Le Gall, the Archbishop of Toulouse, had created the controversy by estimating that "freedom of expression has limits" and "that we could not afford to make fun of religions, [because] we see the result that this gives ”.

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  • Toussaint

  • Church

  • Imam

  • Islam

  • Toulouse

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