President Peres meets the heads of the Jewish community of France and a delegation of Imams, one year after attacks in Toulouse.
President Shimon Peres met on Sunday with the heads of the Jewish community of France and with a delegation of Imams including the heads of the Egyptian, African, Moroccan and Senegalese communities and heads of central mosques.
The meeting took place the day before memorial events in France to mark one year since the terrorist attacks in Toulouse.
Last year, terrorist Mohamed Merah murdered Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his sons Aryeh and Gavriel and Miriam Monsonego at the Otzar HaTorah school in Toulouse. Before that, he murdered three Muslim paratroopers of North African heritage. Merah was ultimately killed when he tried to flee a raid on his apartment.
During Sunday’s meeting with the Imams, President Peres was pleased by their support for Israel, their moderate approach and tolerance towards other faith communities and their vocal, steadfast opposition to terror in all its forms.
According to a statement by Peres’s office, at the start of the meeting Imam Chalghoumi talked about the memorial events one year after the terrorist attacks in France and said, “Tomorrow, March 11th, is a terrible day of mourning for us, a day on which terror struck from which we all suffered. I wanted to tell you, Mr. President, that we Muslims are victims like the Jews, of the same extremist who went on a journey of murder, who took the lives of children.
“We are here to say to our brothers the Jews and the French: We are all threatened by terror, hurt by terror and we all call with optimism for peace at the end of this terrible year. We teach the believers that human life is holier than the holy sites! Holier than Mecca, the Vatican or Jerusalem,” he added.
SOURCE: ARUTZ SHEVA – ISRAELNATIONALNEWS.COM