04 August, 2011

Islam at the doors of Angers town hall

The presence, since almost a year, of immigrants coming in Angers from the Africa Horn, in front of the main entrances of city hall may not end soon because they acquire, few by few, uses there. Men slept there by groups of twenty laid down on cardboards and receive food help from caritative communities or families. But where they are they carried with them their ideas and,therefore their confessional belief : islam (as probably anybody would do - if permitted - in a country where state and confessionnal institutions are separated).


So one of these men was praying yesterday, in direction of the Mecca (direction which goes roughly through Lorraine square) visibly insensible to the presence of fellow citizens and to the ideological restraint anybody is expected to fullfill in a location whose symbol is laïcity.


At that time of the day, the public offices are closed so these people may settle there more comfortably. These groups, probably drove till Angers thanks to professionnal rings, settle in front of city hall for a few days then disappear, soon or later replaced by others. Most of the settlers are men et have the same facial feature : tall and rangy. When they don't stay at the entrance of town hall, the sit at the bottom of the flowerbed in front of the classic front side of the building for endless discussions like in the distant villages they come from.

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