Dozens of French politicians sang the national anthem Friday as they marched into a gathering of around 200 Muslim worshippers in Paris.
A mayor, members of parliament and local councilors protested weekly Muslim street prayers in the neighborhood of Clichy. Demonstrators walked under a banner reading “Stop Illegal Street Prayers”as they tried to push worshippers out of the town’s market square.
Riot police had to separate the groups to avoid a potentially violent confrontation.
WATCH:
#Clichy Toujours plus loin dans le surréaliste : ce sont bien des élus avec leurs écharpes qui ont tenté d’aller bousculer les fidèles. Mouvement de foule, bousculade, chutes… Les gendarmes s’interposent. pic.twitter.com/I131eryIMq
— Théo Maneval (@TheoManeval) November 10, 2017
#Clichy Scène hallucinante : aucun dialogue, mais des élus qui chantent la Marseillaise en même temps que la prière débute. Deux groupes face à face, mais qui ne se parlent pas.#E1midi pic.twitter.com/2tKXTj73lA
— Théo Maneval (@TheoManeval) November 10, 2017
#Clichy Les élus entonnent une Marseillaise, sur une place pour l’instant déserte : à un quart d’heure de la #prière de rue devenue “habituelle”, pas de fidèles. pic.twitter.com/QCCulhdXNi
— Théo Maneval (@TheoManeval) November 10, 2017
The square has been used by worshippers every Friday for nine months after a prayer hall was shut down by local authorities. A new mosque opened about a mile away from the old location but some complained about it being too hard to reach.
“The public space cannot be taken over illegally,” Valerie Pecresse, president of Île-de-France, according to The Local. “We are in a country where we do not pray in the street, the rules of law are being flouted.”
Populist leader Marine Le Pen also weighed in to show support for the protests.
“The Republic must go on the offensive in the face of Islamist provocations,” Le Pen said in a tweet. “What is the Minister of the Interior waiting for to restore public order and secularism? Laxity is not an option.”
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