Toulouse: Synagogue attacked, minister calls to preserve national unity

Toulouse: Synagogue attacked, minister calls to preserve national unity


A burning car was rammed into a synagogue door in southwest France as the interior minister convened Muslims, Jews and police in Paris to warn against contagion from the Gaza conflict.


Damage to the synagogue in a Toulouse neighborhood was limited to a blackened door, and there were no injuries even though a rabbi was giving a course to adults inside, said an official of the regional prefecture, Anne-Gaelle Baudouin.


Police called to the scene found remnants of a Molotov cocktail in the car and a car nearby with three unlighted Molotov cocktails, Baudouin said.


It was not clear whether the incident Monday night was in any way a reflection of frustrations in France as Mideast tensions rise. France has western Europe's largest Muslim and Jewish communities.


Nevertheless Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said she was concerned about the prospect of contagion. She held a meeting late Monday with the heads of the two main Muslim and Jewish groups and police officials to stress the need to "preserve national unity" so that the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the militant Palestinian group ruling Gaza, did not feed passions in France.


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Source: IHT (English)

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