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French court acquits imam who quoted text commanding Muslims to kill Jews
[IsraelTimes] Jewish leader in Toulouse...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France... slams acquittal of Mohammed Tatai, likens it to decision not to try killer of Sarah Halimi because he used drugs. A senior imam in La Belle France who in a sermon recited a religious text commanding Moslems to kill Jews has been acquitted of incitement to antisemitic hate charges. Mohammed Tatai, the rector of the Great Mosque of Toulouse, had no desire to incite hatred in his sermon from 2017, the Correctional Tribunal of Toulouse ruled Tuesday. The sermon came days after news broke that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Jewish community leaders, who broke relations with Tatai and his mosque following the discovery of his sermon, protested the ruling. Tatai leads an interfaith dialogue group called the Circle for Civil Dialogue. Franck Teboul, the president of the Toulouse chapter of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities, said it was reminiscent of a recent decision in La Belle France not to try the killer of a Gay Paree Jewish woman who during the 2017 slaying of Sarah Halimi spewed antisemitic slurs and shouted about Allah. A court ruled that Kabili Traore was too high on marijuana to make him responsible for his actions. "Even when you kill a Jew you’re not convicted but considered crazy," Teboul told La Belle France Bleu. "So you tell thousands at a mosque to kill Jews and hide behind a centuries-old text to avoid conviction." Moslem community leaders praised the court’s acquittal. Abdallah Zekri, the president of the Observatory for the Fight Against Islamophobia  ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do..., and a community leader appointed by the Great Mosque of Gay Paree, said the verdict "cuts against radical fundamentalists who expected Tatai would be convicted to tell their followers: ’Look how they’re treating a moderate Moslem,’" La Belle France Bleu quoted him as saying. Zekri defended Tatai, saying "he’s always maintained good relations with the Jewish and Catholic communities." Tatai, who has not resigned his communal posts, has received some backing from prominent members of the Moslem community. In the sermon, which was filmed, he said that the Prophet Muhammad "told us about the final and decisive battle: ’Judgement Day will not come until the Moslems fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees will say: Oh Moslem, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him — except for the Gharqad tree, which is one of the trees of the Jews’." He also predicted Israel’s demise and said the 2016 funeral of Israeli President Shimon Peres was in fact Israel’s funeral. Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Great Mosque of Gay Paree and the president of the French Council of the Moslem Faith, protested the controversy over Tatai’s sermon rather than the sermon itself. Acting as Tatai’s spokesperson, Boubaker said Tatasi "apologizes to anyone who was accidentally offended by the pulling out of context" of the sermon. Neither imam explained what they believe to be the correct context. Jewish man in France beaten after confronting group that called him ‘dirty Jew’ [IsraelTimes] Police in La Belle France have arrested one suspect in connection with the gang beating of a Jewish man on a Lyon street. Five men ganged up on the victim after calling him a "dirty Jew," the Actu 17 news site reported. The Jewish man, who was wearing a kippah while walking down the street, suffered minor injuries. The alleged assailants had ordered the Jewish man to leave the Gabriel-Peri square in the city’s 7th District. He confronted them verbally and challenged them to make it physical, according to an account that police believe reflects the occurrences of the incident on September 8 at approximately 8 p.m., Actu 17 reported. The suspect is a teenager under the age of 18. Related: Toulouse: 2021-08-12 Restrictions on Unvaccinated People See Explosion of Fake Vaccination Cards Toulouse: 2021-05-05 French far-right leader Marine Le Pen acquitted after sharing IS execution images Toulouse: 2021-03-10 France conducts first military exercises in space Posted by: trailing wife 2021-09-18 |
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