500 Muslim Soldiers' Tombs Desecrated In France

PARIS — Vandals desecrated at least 500 tombs of Muslim soldiers in northern France on Monday _ an act President Nicolas Sarkozy denounced as "repugnant racism."

The desecration near the town of Arras appeared timed with the start of Eid al-Adha, the most important holiday in the Muslim calendar.

The administration for the Pas-de-Calais region said the damaged tombs were in the Muslim section of the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette cemetery, a well-groomed burial ground for World War I soldiers. Some had swastikas scrawled on the tombstone, others had lettering whose meaning was unclear.

There are 576 graves in the Muslim section of the cemetery, where more than 30,000 soldiers are buried.

Sarkozy, in a statement, said the "abject and revolting act" equates with "repugnant racism against France's Muslim community" and insults the memory of all World War I combatants.

It was the third time the Muslim section of the cemetery has been targeted. Last April, 148 tombs were desecrated, and a year before that 52 headstones and an ossuary were vandalized.

The French Council for the Muslim Faith, a group representing France's numerous Muslim groups, decried "these odious, revolting and scandalous acts" and said it expected authorities to find out who carried out the attack.

Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said police were investigating the incident.

Comments

[NKR]

As bad as the Islamophobia is in the US, its nothing compared to that in Europe...

[Tblack]

check that...Europe is DONE with all religion...especially anything remotely fundamentalist.

[OrganOfThought]

If that were true, it would be good.

But this act is still horrible. If Europe is reaching a new level of secularism, it should logically follow open intellectual thought, not racist thuggery.

[pinkindian]

Not as bad because the Muslim population is actually growing in Europe. Also, many are not acculturating which is not a totally bad thing (and not totally good) because there are Muslims who tolerate other religious views. Anyways, racism is wrooong!!!

[SoCalAmerican]

THIS IS SAD, UNFORGIVABLE, EXCEPT BY GOD AND 100% BS.

[HaloGuy]

Unforgivable, except by God....

The crime in this story is wrong, but your post is downright terrifying.

[sansego2000]

This is what keeps the fires of hell burning.

[StringOfLights]

This is inexcusable, unabashed hatred and racism. We are very rapidly turning into the enemy we are trying to defeat.

[obamaluv]

Who is We. Are you French?

[brooklyncitizen]

Just Non-Muslims....French, American, Christian , Jewish it doesn't matter .

[adsandiego]

not YOU, apparently ...

[Fuji]

And who is the enemy?

[EndangeredJackalope]

And it was probably some frustrated kid or a thick-skulled insecure adult who never grew out of childhood

[brooklyncitizen]

seems like a lot of work...funny no one was caught in the act.

[LeftLeanWing]

The residents were asleep when all of this was taking place.

[PoliticalRockChick]

Sick. Just plain sick.

[rkimball]

the paris riots started over shootings of a muslum youth. the next paris riots will start over treatment of muslums. when will the french ever learn? is paris burning?

[CitizenJ]

Sadly, the French are far from the only country with citizens like this...not naming any names.

[TTM]

It took more than two centuries for Americans to get rid of institutional slavery and institutional segregation.
Generally speaking, there is much more effective segregation in the United States than in France.

[pakiman]

I don't think that is true. Segregation in France is deeply institutionalized, and immigrant communities, especially those from North Africa and other Muslims lands DO NOT assimilate into French culture for various reasons. THere is no comparison to the racism in France and the racism, against Muslims at least, in the US.

[Lazlow84]

This is just sick. I imagine whoever did it probably was thinking this would be some sort of payback for the Mumbai attacks or something, but it's simply disgusting to do this to the dead, no matter who they are.

[UnknownSoldier]

French Muslims who fought for French Liberty should be honored but the swastikas explain it all. They don't not represent the French as a whole.

[brooklyncitizen]

It is sad...

[Atcha]

I can't help but notice that this story gets more reactions on Huffpo than the posts mentionning the actual civilians victims of the US occupation in Iraq an Afghanistan...priorities eh...

As for the desacration it's not the first time that stupid punks try to raise maximum outrage doing that, it just takes a paint bomb, a trip to the cemetery at night et voilà, they get the maximum bang for their buck, everyone gets upset about it and they couldn't be happier - If we kept it quiet, clean up the place, reinforce camera surveillance around the cemetaries we wouldn't give them that satisfaction

[realt123]

Priorities?? Why is that we Americans are only selfish about our own 5,000 troops, but don't give a nickel about the 100,000 plus civilians dead in Iraq. Its about Ethics. Of course the troops did a great job and are heroes, but we are forgetting the people who never asked for this.

[realt123]

I meant the 5,000 troops that died. There are way more than 5,000 troops in Iraq.

[GravitonX]

Most despicable... They fought for their country and made the highest sacrifice so that some cowards can desecrate their graves in the night.

[QueenOfViolets]

Those men fought for France. This is very bad karma. The French police must find the ungrateful criminals who did this and bring them to justice to cleanse France from this stain.

[Yve72]

What the H#%&*LL is wrong with people?

We (humans) have lost our respect for the dead.

Until recently, even in the worst of wars, we respected, properly buried, and did not desecrate the graves of the dead of the opposing forces or anyone else. This is even more ignorant because these souls were citizens who fought for the country of France.

This isn't just anti-Islamic. Its anti-humanity.

Though they may not worry about such worldly things now, I almost wish that those souls who had their graves desecrated pay those vandals a nightly visit until they show up at the police station, confess, and clean each headstone. They don't deserve a moment's peace until they correct what they've done. You can best believe that if those were Native American graves, the spirits would give them no peace until then.

[brooklyncitizen]

Really?

[HaloGuy]

As much as I wish your statements were true, there's about 5k years worth of history to contradict you (see tomb desecrations, mass graves, enterral relocation, etc.) Sorry.

[Whinger]

Those who did this deed have desecrated themselves, the dead sleep and can't be harmed by man!

[AZM]

This is terrible, inexcusable behavior. Almost as bad as Shias murdering Christians in Iraq, and people everywhere murdering Jews!! Perhaps we should declare a moratorium on organized religion?

[shanefish]

Religion has caused much of the world's problems. People are uneducated, starved and murdered all in the name of the Almighty. No one should have power over another, period. Race and religion do not matter. The more we stoke this irrational fear of each other, the worse this world will get before we hand it over to our children. Perhaps we should put a stop to organized religion and come together for one common purpose....our children's future. 1,000 years from now they will learn about our society in school and probably get a laugh about how insanely ignorant we were to the realities of our universe. There is no god and there is no afterlife. Get a grip people.

[brooklyncitizen]

Yeah...how about that MLK and Ghandi and Mother Teresa and the Buddhist Monks killed in Myamar/Burma a few months back when they challenged their brutal govt...someone should have alerted them all that there is no God....what a waste of time huh?

[MichaelinPhilly]

Your comment is just as bigoted as the behavior you claim to condemn. If you want to believe there's no God and no afterlife, that's your business. But to take an incident like this and generalize it to ALL religious people - even Martin Luther King, the leading abolitionists and Desmond Tutu (and the 500 Muslims whose graves have been desecrated, and, if I may be so bold, me) - is ignorant and offensive.

[Fuji]

Your comment will not stand. Attacks on Islam are to be condemned. Attack a Christian or Jew? Well, they're just askin' for it. Or you'll hear "ALL RELIGIONS ARE TO BLAME."

How blind you people are.

[haramagoti]

Frank Zappa was a significant proponent, among other things, for not overreacting to language and the ways in which people will try and manipulate others basic instincts, stirring hatred, outrage and all the rest, even positive instincts are ones we allow ourselves to be led around by others with illogically. That said, this was a deplorable act, one that must be cleaned like any deplorable graffiti, and i hope the investigation nets each and every bastard, not for voicing their brainless opinion, they should be allowed, however distasteful, but for the manner in which they'd done so. No excuse for trashing graves of people from any walk of life, no matter how you do it.