Venting their aggression on those whom the Qur’an designates as the worst enemies of the Muslims (cf. 5:82). And Pamela Geller makes some trenchant observations about the way that AFP identifies the attackers: “Of course, the AFP description of the jihadists is at the bottom of the article. Here again we find the media identifying the terrorists by nationality. Geography has as much to do with it it as the color of their pants. It is ideology. The ideology behind these attacks is carefully omitted out of respect to the blasphemy laws under the sharia (do not criticize Islam). Instead, ‘North African origin’ is the laughable label.”
“Lyon: three young Jews wearing yarmulkes attacked with a hammer and iron bar,” a corrected version of the Google translation of this AFP article, June 3 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
Three young Jews wearing skullcaps were attacked Saturday night in Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon, by a dozen individuals who beat them with hammers and iron bars, “extremely serious” acts denounced by the Minister of the Interior, Manuel Valls.
A youth suffered an open wound to the skull and a young girl was hit in the neck, according to the Ministry of Interior. Briefly hospitalized, they were all released from the hospital Saturday night, after five days of hospitalization, the police told AFP.
Manuel Valls described the anti-Semitic attack as “extremely serious” and reiterated his “determination to fight against any aggression of a religious nature.”
“These acts are extremely serious: a deliberate attack upon our republican model that should enable everyone of whatever religious affiliation, without distinction, to live freely and safely,” said the Interior Ministry in a statement.
“Manuel Valls ensured the full mobilization of police on site so that the perpetrators of this assault were, as required by the laws of the Republic, arrested and placed at the disposal of justice,” it added.
The incident occurred on Saturday at about 6:30PM near the Beth Menachem Jewish School of Villeurbanne. Three young Jews of about twenty years of age, wearing yarmulkes, were “insulted and jostled by three individuals.”
The assailants, joined minutes later by “ten armed people,” returned to the scene. This was followed by an “exchange of blows,” during which “two of the three youths” received “a hammer and a blow with an iron bar at the head,” police said. The third youth was hit in the arm.
Upon leaving the hospital, the three victims filed complaints after being interviewed by police, who opened an investigation.
Police said additional patrols have been assigned to Villeurbanne to “strengthen the security sector.” As of now, no arrests have taken place.
Lyons police confirmed that they had not wished to make public the Sunday night attack, which was made public by Mr. Valls, citing the need for a “secret investigation” for reasons of efficiency. “We are looking for the perpetrators with the utmost discretion,” said a police official.
The National Bureau of Vigilance against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA) reacted to this “anti-Semitic violent assault.” The attackers, described as “of North African origin,” uttered “insults in connection with the Jewish religion” of the victims before assaulting them physically, said the BNVCA.
“We ask the police to make every effort to identify and question the perpetrators that the victims are able to recognize,” it added in a statement.
“It is the twenty-first century and we have young people who are assaulted with blows from iron bars and a hammer because they wear a yarmulke,” Alain Jakubowicz, Chair of Licra and a lawyer in Lyon, told AFP .
Referring to the fact that the attackers appear to be of North African origin, he warned to “be wary of racial profiling” while the investigation remains ongoing, while evoking the tensions between Arab and Jewish communities around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “with the identification of the Jews as Zionists.”