Anti-Christian Tags Painted on Cardinal Saliège's Statue in Toulouse

Case information
Incident date
Country
France
Place
Toulouse
Categories
  • Social Hostility / Intolerance
Attack Against
  • Faith
Perpetrator / Motive Indicators
  • Anti-Religion or Humanism Groups
Hate Crime & Violent Incidents
  • Vandalism (all)
  • Vandalism of Public Christian Symbol
  • Insult or Incitement
Religious Freedom / Discrimination
  • Censorship or Removal of Public Christian Symbols
Place of Incident
  • Public Street
Bias Indicators
  • Comments/Written Statements/Gestures/Graffiti
  • Significance of Property/Structure/Location to religious community
Reported to Police
  • Unknown

On March 19, unknown vandals wrote the anarchist motto "Ni Dieu ni maître" (No God nor master) on the pedestal of Cardinal Saliège's statue in Toulouse. The Cardinal served as archbishop of the city during World War 2 and used all his power to rescue Jews from persecution and later received the title of Righteous Among the Nations. The current archbishop, Guy de Kerimel strongly condemned this degradation which "hurts both Christians and Jews". The degradation occurred precisely eleven years after Mohammed Merah's mass shooting at a Jewish school.

Symbolic illustration by Dat Vo on Unsplash

Sources