TEL AVIV – Muslim intellectuals in France have been slammed by a French Jewish leader for omitting any mention of violence committed against Jews in a petition against local jihadists, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.
“We French-Muslims are ready to assume our responsibilities” was the title given to an open letter published in the Journal de Dimanche on Sunday. The signatories, comprised of Muslim academics and celebrities, said they regretted the lack of prevention methods against radical jihadism on the part of Islamic institutions in the country.
The petition mentions five terrorist attacks in France, including the Charlie Hebdo massacre last year, November’s bombing and shooting attacks, the murder of two police officers in June, the Nice attacks last month, and the murder of a priest last week.
Conspicuously absent is any reference to the Hyper Cacher massacre in which four Jews were murdered by Muslim extremists, and the murder of three children and a rabbi in Toulouse in 2012.
The signatories called for “a clear organizational project” within French Muslim communities, involving “transparent and viable funding for mosques, education, and salaried employment for imams, research on history, anthropology, and theology that would allow and allows one to be Muslim in a non-religious republic.”
It also called for “a cultural battle against radical Islam, among young and not so young, with modern methods and the most effective techniques for disseminating information and ideas.”
Robert Ejnes, the executive director of CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish communities and organizations, lambasted the omissions in a post on Facebook.
“You’re ready to assume your responsibilities, but you are off to a bad start,” Ejnes wrote.
“You have a long way to go, my friends: You need to understand one day that these anti-Semitic attacks were committed against *Jews*, who were targeted for being Jewish. You can’t avoid these anti-Semitic murders.”
“In any case, we’ll always be here to remind you,” he added.
CRIF called for the petition to be amended to include Islamist attacks on Jews.
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