Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Escaped Muslim psycho attacks rabbi in Paris

http://usat.ly/XUkqKN

Escaped psychiatric patient attacks rabbi in Paris


2:32 p.m. EDT April 23, 2013




Story Highlights
France has the largest Jewish community in Western Europe
The assailant is said to have screamed 'Allah-u-Akbar' during the attacks
The rabbi and is son are recovering from injuries

PARIS (AP) - An escapee from a psychiatric institution slashed a rabbi and
his son with a box-cutter on Tuesday, prompting witnesses to tackle and
subdue the attacker after a chase through a Paris synagogue, officials said.

The rabbi, who is in his late 40s, was recovering from surgery for a neck
injury and his 18-year-old son sustained lesser injuries in the attack north
of a touristic shopping area near Paris' gilded Opera Garnier, according to
police and judicial officials and Richard Prasquier, who heads CRIF,
France's largest umbrella organization of Jewish groups.

The assailant was of Iranian origin, and an official investigation was
underway to determine a possible motive, Prasquier said. The attacker, now
in police custody, had escaped from a psychiatric hospital near southeastern
Lyon last week, said a police official on condition of anonymity because he
was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor's office,
said the two victims had been wearing Jewish skullcaps, and the attacker was
detained after a chase through the synagogue. The Simon Wiesenthal Center,
which monitors anti-Semitic incidents worldwide, said in a statement that
the assailant screamed "Allah-u-Akbar" - or "God is great" - during the
attack.

France is home to the largest Jewish community in Western Europe, at some
500,000 people, which has faced sporadic bouts of anti-Semitism over the
years. In one of the country's most wrenching episodes in recent years,
three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi were shot and killed by a radical
Islamic militant in March last year in the southwestern city of Toulouse.

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