Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
Voice of America is funded by the US Federal Government and content it
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April 6, 2008

Vandals Desecrate Muslim Military Graves in Northern France
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1BCA204:A6F02AD83191E160762409C61A5A2D5530EB2FA2E66CBB22& At least 150
Muslim headstones have been inscribed with anti-Islamic slogans,
graffiti





A grave of a Muslim World War I soldier, defaced with a swastika, is
seen in the cemetery at Ablain-Saint-Nazaire, northern France, 06 Apr
2008French police say vandals have desecrated nearly 150 Muslim grave
sites at a World War I military cemetery in northern France.

Authorities say headstones were inscribed Saturday night with
anti-Islamic slogans and graffiti deriding Justice Minister Rachida
Dati, who is of North African origin. A pig's head was found hanging
from one grave marker.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the vandalism a form of
"unacceptable racism." He said he shares the pain of his country's
Muslim community - the largest in Europe.

The desecration came less than a year after youths painted Nazi
inscriptions and swastikas on Muslim tombs in the same cemetery.

Police arrested two suspects in the 2007 vandalism. Both were
convicted and sentenced to one-year prison terms.

>From 1914 to 1917, France mobilized about 600,000 colonial subjects,
including many Muslims from Algeria and Tunisia. Seventy-eight
thousand of those conscripts were killed.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.




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