"Inter-convictional" meeting at City Hall in Paris

Tuesday, March 22, 2016, community, religious dignitaries and intellectuals gathered at the Paris City Hall to say with one voice that they are French and Republicans. They proclaimed alltogether that secularism is their only frame of thought, practice and reference.

 

The Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, welcomed the gathering of the "Voices of Peace", who took a special dimension following the Brussels attacks. Our "society must generate antibodies" against "barbaric acts", such as those that occurred in Brussels, said Hidalgo, thanking the hundreds of people, of all faiths, who had gathered for the "inter-convictional meeting" of this association, attended by many religious dignitaries.

 

This first meeting was initiated by Rabbi Yann Boissiere. "What brings us together, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, agnostics or atheists, is our connection to the Republic and to secularism," said the MJLF (Liberal Jewish Movement of France) Rabbi, hosting this young association, born "in the difficult context of the 2015 attacks".

 

"These terrorists, who speak in the name of faith, are faithless and lawless. We will fight them to the end", also said the Mayor of Paris. A minute of silence was held, attended by the french ministers Jean-Marc Ayrault and Emmanuelle Cosse.

 

The meeting ended with a call for peace, at which participated Roger Cukierman, President of CRIF, Slimane Nadour, representing the Great Mosque of Paris, and Laurent Schlumberger, President of the united protestant Church of France.

 

Learn more : http://www.lesvoixdelapaix.fr