08 August 2011

Paris Muslims offered disused barracks to stop prayers in the streets

Muslims who have been praying in the streets of a Paris neighbourhood have been offered a disused barracks to pray in, French Interior Minister Claude Guéant announced Monday. Muslim leaders have visited the site and agreed that it is suitable, he said.

“Praying in the street is something that is not acceptable,” Guéant told the AFP news agency, insisting that it is contrary to the French state's secular principles. “It has to stop.”

Muslims have been praying in public in two streets in Paris’s 18th arrondissement - rues Myrha and Polonceau - for some time because the local mosques are not big enough. [RFI] Read more [via National Secular Society]