Although the Muslim community in this region of France is the largest and one of the best organized, today it suffers from an unprecedented torrent of acts of hatred against Muslims, with the apparent reluctance of officials to address this disturbing phenomenon.
This is what summarizes a report prepared by Yves Goyo for the French newspaper La Croix, in which he noted that the mental state of the French community in the Rhone region and its capital, Lyon, is very bad.
The writer stated that this was revealed on Friday, February 4, when the parliamentary mission on anti-religious actions stopped in Lyon, and met there with leaders of different religions, especially representatives of Muslims who expressed great concern about the steadily worsening hostilities they are being exposed to.
The writer pointed to a symbolic movement that shows the urgency of responding to these attacks, carried out by Kamel, the dean of the Great Mosque in Lyon - the third most populous French city - when he began his meeting with parliamentarians Isabelle Florin and Ludovic Mendes by reading a few lines from a letter he received that morning, adding These are the disturbing words of an unnamed Muslim who regrets the unprecedented outpouring of anti-Muslim hatred and strongly condemns the state's failure to respond.
Kabtan, who is also president of the Rhone Council of Mosques, added that what that letter spoke of was "the state of mind of the Muslim community here in recent months", saying: "I have never known France in such a state."
The writer mentioned that the two representatives' visit comes within the framework of implementing a request from the government to prepare an inventory of anti-religious acts committed in France, and that they are touring France and meeting religious officials and holding hearings with them.
He added that local leaders of the Islamic faith were particularly eager to meet with this mission, to inform it of the scope of threats and actual actions against Muslims, which saw an increase of 32% according to the latest report issued by the Ministry of Interior.
But the writer commented that the Rhone region is one of the French provinces in which there is a Muslim community that is the largest and one of the best organized in France, but that there is also a "particularly active far-right network", as explained by Representative Mossel Ludovic Mendez.
He pointed out that the year 2020 was a particularly difficult year for Muslims. In addition to the deliberate burning of the Brune Mosque and the Al-Birach Chapel in the middle of the summer, institutions and their leaders were repeatedly targeted, and the Great Mosque of Lyon was subjected to a flood of verbal insults during the time of one of the prayers. Identity Generation.
The writer says that individuals are also targeted. In this context, he tells the story of Yassin, a 38-year-old resident of Lyon, who says that in November 2021 he began building his new home in a small town in the Haute-Loire, when tools were set on fire. The building he brought in and his building permit was eventually suspended by the city council, after a public meeting with its residents.
Qabtan believes that what caused these abuses was "unleashing" white extremists in the media field, as well as in the political field, explaining that hostilities, when they became daily, no longer found anyone to condemn them.