Bomb attack in Corsican capital partially destroys Muslim prayer room

A prayer room used by the Muslim community on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica was partially destroyed overnight by a bomb in an attack described by the Interior Ministry as ‘racist’. 

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Racists slogans were also found on the wall of the building.

An Interior Ministry statement said the minister Claude Gueant “wanted to make sure the muslim community was not being stigmatized and had asked the authorities in charge of the investigation to bring those behind the attack to justice as quickly as possible.”

RFI/Anthony Terrade

The attack in Ajaccio comes just three weeks after the murder of soldiers, children and a teacher by Mohamed Merah, an Islamist gunman of Algerian origin.

Those attacks deeply shocked the country and put the issue of security firmly on the agenda of the upcoming presidential elections.

More than four million Muslims live in France and community leaders had warned there was a risk they would become targets.

In 2011, the organization which monitors anti-Islamic attacks in France, the Observatoire contre l’Islamaphobie , said the number of attacks against Muslims had increased by 34 per cent from 2010 to 155 in 2012.