ALGIERS- A still bloody carcass of a wild boar was laid Monday, January 31 in the morning, in front of the Muslim funeral directors in the Zénith district, in Toulouse. An anti-Muslim act for its manager, who filed a complaint.
In the early morning, Monday, January 31, a dead wild boar was discovered in Toulouse near a Muslim funeral directors. The carcass was inserted on a panel. A shock for the traders in the small shopping center of Barry, including Muslim funeral directors.
“”I’m really shocked, stunned! Especially for my children! This isn’t the first time this has happened to me… It’s an act of intimidation, I’m afraid for my children,” explained Djamel Sekkak, the owner of the Muslim funeral agency Al Isra Oua Al Miara, located in the Barry shopping center. He is also an educator and football coach.
“This Monday around 7 am when I arrived at work, I discovered a dead boar inserted on a panel in front of my company. “It’s a provocation, an insult, two years ago they broke my whole window, I think it’s the same people” he lamented, “They also tagged my offices in Toulouse by writing Arabic sales outside, leave the country”.
The manager immediately called the police and filed a complaint. “The police stayed for most of the morning. I don’t think it’s a joke. I moved here 6 years ago, and this is the third time we’ve been away take it to me. I’ve already had my window tagged and then broken,” explained Mr. Sekkak.
“The judicial support group (GAJ) was seized of the investigation. This will have to determine whether it is an Islamophobic act or not,” Djamel Sekkak pointed out.
“There is a lot of talk about us; the Muslims on television,” “people are worried” while my business “was the first Muslim funeral company in France” and “it is for everyone, Jews or Christians”, “we are a family business”. “Since 2015 it has become dramatic and we are fearful” he stressed.
To this end, the manager denounced an Islamophobic act as the carcass of the wild boar was voluntarily placed in front of his Muslim funeral director, before adding: ““Unfortunately, this is the 4th or 5th complaint and nothing is happening”.
Do not that the police launched technical surveys and hearings between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Monday. Then the bloody animal was carried away by city hall staff.
For his part, Abdellatif Mellouki, vice-president and spokesperson for the Regional Council of Muslim Worship, reacted. “It’s an unacceptable act, clearly anti-Muslim and targeted. I don’t understand what can push people to act like this. It’s really complicated for the people targeted, who are well integrated, don’t want to harm anybody .”
For the representative of the authorities of the Muslim faith, the people who did this did not act randomly. “This kind of provocation can occur in front of places of worship, for example. This has already been seen, in Nice a few years ago for example, also with a dead boar. But here, we have a business identified as intended for of the Muslim community. It is equally shocking, and I understand the pain that the victims may feel”.
Abdellatif Mellouki is certain of it, the “nauseating climate authorized by certain declarations, with the approach of the presidential election, is no stranger to such an act. “The anti-Muslim stigmatization, the rejection of the other, we don’t want this to spread in a city like Toulouse, a multicultural city open to others. These acts are the work of minority groups, fortunately, but which are starting to make noise.”
This act has not been isolated in recent days in the region, since a fire ravaged a halal butcher’s shop overnight from Saturday to Sunday in Bon-Encontre in Lot-et-Garonne. Two swastikas were painted on the facade of the building.
