Hollande visits main Paris mosque, a year after Charlie Hebdo attack
PARIS: French President Francois Hollande made an unannounced visit to the main mosque in Paris on Sunday, a year after terrorist attacks in the French capital.
“The president had a short conversation and a moment of friendship and fraternity over a cup of tea,” a French presidency official said.
Earlier, Hollande attended a low-key event to mark a year since 1.5 million people thronged Paris in a show of unity following the shootings at Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a Jewish supermarket.
Mosques across France opened their doors to the public this weekend in a bid by the Muslim community to build bridges following a series of attacks that rocked France in 2015.
France pays tribute to victims in silent ceremony
France honoured the victims of attacks in a thinly attended silent ceremony.
President Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo layed a wreath by the statue of Marianne, symbol of the French republic, in central Paris.
The statue has become a shrine to the 17 victims of the January 2015 attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish deli, and to the 130 people shot dead by militants on Nov. 13 at a concert, and in bars and restaurants in Paris.
“To the victims of the terrorist attacks in January and November ... In this place, the people of France pay their respect,” read a metal plaque unveiled by Hollande and Hidalgo under a newly planted memorial oak tree on Place de la Republique in eastern Paris.