Moroccan government calls for restraint, dialogue following murder attempt against Imam in Corsica

The Moroccan Ministry in charge of Moroccans Living Abroad condemned the "racist" assassination attempt carried out on Friday night against a Moroccan Imam in a mosque in Sartene (Corsica) and called Moroccans to show restraint and carry on constructive dialogue and the friendship with the local populations.

In a statement sent to MAP, the ministry said it is convinced that this is "an isolated xenophobe act that will not affect the feelings of mutual respect and friendship" between the Moroccan French peoples.

Morocco also trusts the measures taken by the French authorities to secure the safety of religious sites and persons, following a series of racist attacks against north Africans in Corsica, the release said.

A group of individuals gunshot the man's house door after shouting racist insults. The Imam could have been seriously injured if he did not have the reflex to pin against the wall in his house that also serves as a mosque.

The National Council of Moroccans in France (CNMF) has called for the implementation of pertinent laws to end the "intolerable" situation of the Maghreban community in Corsica and called the North African community in Corsica to maintain its "peaceful behavior" and to "resist criminal provocations."

CNMF deplored that the measures taken so far "have not stopped a minority from carrying on their threats, discriminatory attitudes and insults" against the North African community.

Recently, the French paper Le Parisien reported that three hundred Corsica-settled Moroccan families escaped the worrying upsurge of racism in the French Island, to Le Gard (Southern France).

The party of Corsica Nation (Parti de la nation corse -PNC) has also condemned the attack against El-Atrache.

"We strongly denounce these hideous acts that spoil our Island (É)," PNC Secretary, Jean-Christophe Angelini, in an interview with the newspaper "Liberation."