"ALLAHU AKBAR" ENGRAVED ON CATHEDRAL IN FRANCE

BBC: 'Muslim' gargoyle adorns French cathedral

It has been traditional for stonemasons to be featured on gargoyles.

A Muslim stonemason in France has been immortalised by having his face carved on a gargoyle on the side of the medieval cathedral in Lyon.

Ahmed Benzizine - a 59-year-old master mason who worked on the renovation - was used as a model for the carving.

Next to it is an inscription in Arabic and French which reads: Allahu Akbar, God is Great.

But a local far-right group has said the carving is an affront to the Catholic Church.

Fellow stonemason Emmanuel Fourchet decided to carve the gargoyle, nicknamed Ahmed, in tribute to his friend, with whom he has worked on the renovation of religious buildings for several decades.

"I'm a Frenchman and a practising Muslim and I've always worked on historic monuments. I could work on mosques or synagogues as well," Mr Benzizine told the AFP news agency.


"I have a lot of respect for sacred places," he said, adding it had been a tradition since the church was first built in the 12th Century for stonemasons to appear as caricatures on gargoyles.

But the carving has been denounced by Les Jeunes Identitaires Lyonnais, a right-wing group which says it defends the region's traditional "ethnic and cultural identity".

"While in many Muslim countries, Christianity is forbidden and Christians persecuted, in Lyon, Muslims take over our churches at their leisure with the complicity of Catholic authorities," the group said on its website.

The church authorities are unperturbed, says the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris.

REPEAT:

"While in many Muslim countries, Christianity is forbidden and Christians persecuted, in Lyon, Muslims take over our churches at their leisure with the complicity of Catholic authorities,"

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS. SO TYPICAL OF THE DHIMMI CHRISTIANS OF EUROPE.

IF ISLAMIZATION SUCCEEDS, THEN EUROPEANS WILL BE GETTING WHAT THEY DESERVE.

(ONLY GEERT WILDERS AND GROUPS LIKE THE EDL CAN SAVE THEM NOW. AND IF THEY DON'T ACT SOON, IT WILL ONLY BE PREVENTED WITH VIOLENCE.)