The gargoyles grinning down from Lyon's majestic St Jean Cathedral may in recent centuries have lost their power to intimidate sinners, but a new arrival has perturbed some hardliners.
A Muslim stonemason who spent nearly four decades helping to restore a Roman Catholic cathedral in France has been immortalized as a gargoyle peering out from its facade, with the inscription "God is great" at its clawed feet -a move that has sparked controversy.
Ahmed Benzizine, a practising Muslim born in Algeria, a former French colony, sees the gargoyle in his image as "a message of peace and tolerance."
"When I started to work in churches ... exactly 37 years ago, it was considered a sin that a Muslim enter a place of worship other than a mosque," he said.
For Emmanuel Fourchet, the sculptor who immortalized Benzizine in stone, "it was an occasion to pay tribute."
The gargoyle on the Saint Jean Cathedral has been in place for about six months, but until recently, few people noticed.
However, a recent campaign by a small extreme-right group denouncing the likeness of a Muslim on a Catholic institution and the inscription proclaiming "God is great" in French and Arabic -"Dieu est grand, Allahu akbar" -has put everyone on the defensive, even Benzizine.
"Just the fact that it's written in Arabic, it shocked a minority" because it evokes Islam, he said. But, Benzizine insisted, "God is great. It's not talking about Muhammad," the Muslim prophet and founder of the Islamic faith. He noted that he works on all historic monuments, be they cathedrals, mosques or synagogues.
The extreme-right group Identity Youth of Lyon said on its website that the "clearly symbolic" inscription is "the manifestation of a conquering Islam... How many `Ave Marias' are inscribed on how many mosques?" it asked.
The Archdiocese of Lyon says the small group stands alone in criticizing the gargoyle. Church spokesman Pierre Durieux described the gargoyle as an "ecumenical symbol" and said the youth group is "no more Christian than anyone else."
"There was no opposition, and no particular authorization on the behalf of the Church," he said. "In history, gargoyles were always profane figures and a chance for irony and satire. In any case, they're not inside the church."
Kamel Kabtane, rector of Lyon's main mosque, described the gargoyle as "another tribute to the friendship between Muslims and Christians in Lyon."
France has the largest Islamic minority in Western Europe, with an estimated five million Muslim citizens and residents, mainly of North African descent.
Although the state is officially secular and citizens of all faiths and none are legally equal, moves by President Nicolas Sarkozy's government to ban the full face veil worn in some Islamic traditions have raised tensions.
Source: Yahoo News and CBC News http:// www.cbc.com
Ahmed Benzizine below the gargoyle portraying him at the Saint Jean cathedral in Lyon, central France. The Muslim worker who spent nearly four decades helping to restore an ancient cathedral in Lyon has been immortalized before he retires, as a winged gargoyle peering from the facade of the edifice with the inscription "God is Great" in both French and Arabic.
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