Paris - A group of eminent French Muslims have lent their voices to protests by Muslims in several countries against the campaign of terror waged by the Islamic State group.
Writing in Le Figaro newspaper on Friday, the group of clerics, lawyers, journalists, academics, artists, politicians and activists said: “We, Muslims of France, can only express our revulsion and condemn with all our energy the abominable crimes perpetrated in the name of a religion of which the very foundations are peace, mercy and respect for life.”
“We deny these savage beings the right to claim to represent Islam and to express themselves in our name,” the group of 20 personalities, which includes the rector of the central mosque of Lyon and a Paris senator, wrote.
The protest comes two days after Herve Gourdel, a 55-year-old mountain guide, was beheaded by Algerian jihadists affiliated to the Islamic State extremists.
The Islamic State had called a day earlier for its supporters to attack citizens of countries that have joined a military campaign against the group in Iraq and Syria, particularly the “bad, dirty French”.
“We are honoured to say that 'we are also dirty French',” the signatories of the Le Figaro letter wrote.
The speed with which Gourdel was executed - within three days of being kidnapped - has caused shock in France.
He was killed after the French government rejected a 24-hour ultimatum by his captors for it to halt air strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq.
The rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris has called on French Muslims and their friends to attend a rally later Friday against “the terrorists' barbaric and bloody horror”. - Sapa-dpa