The place of worship had already been vandalized several months ago. The Koba mosque, which is located in the first arrondissement of Lyon, on the slopes of Croix-Rousse, was damaged during the night from Friday to Saturday, report our colleagues from Le Progrès.
The inscription “proud to be a kufar”, or “disbeliever” in Arabic, was written in black letters on an exterior wall of the building. We can see this tag on the photograph shared on Facebook by the rector of the Villeurbanne mosque (Rhône) Azzdine Gaci.
“The form and content of graffiti change, evolve and diversify, but the expression of Islamophobia is always there. The merchants of hatred still have a bright future ahead of them,” regrets Azzedine Gaci in his Facebook post.
Kamel Kabtane, rector of the Grand Mosque of Lyon, tells Progrès that this mosque, the oldest in Lyon, had already been degraded in the past. On November 15, the religious building was targeted with another Islamophobic tag (“Islam is anti-Semitic”), also written with black spray paint. “It hurts our hearts,” regrets Kamel Kabtane.
In a message on “The explosion in the number of anti-religious acts is worrying, in Lyon as elsewhere,” she writes again.
Via a press release, the council of mosques of the Rhône is concerned about the fact that “anti-Muslim acts are increasing across the national territory”. During his trip to the Grand Mosque of Lyon last March, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin explained that 242 anti-Muslim acts had been recorded in 2023, an unacceptable increase of 30%. A silent demonstration will take place this Sunday at 6 p.m. in front of the Koba mosque.