December 31, 2002	Tuesday	Shawwal 26, 1423

PARIS, Dec 30: Over 600 Muslims turned out on Monday to protest last week’s attacks on a mosque at Lyons and at a community centre.

Rector Kamal Kabtane, advising followers to “remain cool” and not lose their patience, however did pose a question as to whether such attacks were not related to the recent series of police raids on suspected extremists in the Paris region.

“Perhaps,” he wondered out loud, “did the racist attack (against the Lyons Mosque) come in reaction to the excessive media coverage accorded the police raids in the French press?”

The Lyons Grand Mosque was splattered with several paint bombs on Saturday morning in the colours of red, white and blue, the colours of the French flag and interestingly, of the United States, too.

Another Islamic landmark, noted Mr Kabtane, was attacked on Sunday night, although the existence of a link between the two events was revealed only on Monday.

The Lyons region has an estimated 450,000 Muslims and some 200 mosques.