Hundreds of mosques and Islamic prayer rooms across France have opened their doors to encourage visits by non-Muslims in a country shaken by recent extremist attacks.
Dubbed "a brotherly cup of tea", local mosques are handing out hot drinks and pastries, offering guided visits, holding debates and calligraphy workshops, and even inviting people to attend one of the five daily prayers.
Organized by the country's leading Muslim body, the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), it aims to stimulate dialogue about Islam and create a greater sense of "national cohesion"
The weekend-long invitation comes a year after 17 people were killed in extremists’ attacks in Paris targeting satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket, AFP reported.
"The objective is to create a space where people can be together and meet normal Muslim worshippers and all of our fellow citizens," CFCM president Anouar Kbibech said.
The idea is to use the anniversary of the January 7-9 attacks to "highlight the real values of Islam, to set straight the cliches about links to violence and terrorism," he said, describing the venture as a "gesture of openness".
Interior Minister Praises Initiative
In a small prayer hall in Ajaccio on the French island of Corsica, which was attacked on Christmas day, Jean-Francois, in his sixties, took up the invitation to visit.
"If someone holds out their hand, I accept it and I shake it," he said, while drinking a cup of tea.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve accepted an invitation to visit a mosque near Paris, and hailed the initiative.
France needs, more than ever, "the engagement of all Muslims in France", he said, while warning that "the self-proclaimed preachers of hate" in mosques would be dealt with severely.
Although not all of France's 2,500 mosques and places of worship are taking part, the most important ones are, including the Grand Mosque of Paris.
The event comes after a year which saw a surge in anti-Muslim acts in France, some of which targeted places of worship, although the number was much lower after the November bloodshed than after the January attacks.
France's five million Muslims often complain of discrimination, notably on the employment front.
