Some 150 Muslims, Christians and Jews have prayed together in the Muslim section of the Notre Dame de Lorette cemetery in northern France as a mark of solidarity to protest what a local Islamic leader called an "odious and irresponsible act." They laid a wreath at the graves of the soldiers who died fighting for France in World War I, whose desecration last Saturday had caused widespread shock, and said a prayer for the dead. Abdelkader Aoussedj, deputy head of the French Council for the Muslim Faith for the area, said his community was very touched by the "mobilization of national and regional" authorities and by the "marks of sympathy" expressed by other religions. He urged Muslims to remain calm, and French authorities "to condemn those responsible with the utmost severity".
The attack, discovered on Sunday morning, left swastika signs, a pig's head and insults against justice minister Rachida Dati, who is of North African origin, on the desecrated graves. Prominent Catholic and Jewish religious leaders, along with President Nicolas Sarkozy, expressed anger at this latest vandalism of Muslim war graves, which came less than a year after a similar incident. In April 2007 neo-Nazis had scrawled swastikas on 52 of the same cemetery's Muslim graves. Two men aged 18 and 21 and a 16-year-old were swiftly arrested and sentenced to prison terms.