![Errahma mosque in Villeurbanne, central France
[Photo by JEFF PACHOUD/AFP via Getty Images]](https://mmnews.tv/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Errahma-Mosque.jpg)
Police on Wednesday arrested a man suspected of burning a copy of the Holy Quran outside a mosque in Villeurbanne, near Lyon, France.
The incident, which occurred on Monday morning, at the Errahma Mosque as it was opening for morning prayers, the Rhone Mosques Council (CMR) confirmed on Tuesday.
According to the French broadcaster RMC, the suspect, an adult male, is described as “psychologically fragile” by the Lyon public prosecutor’s office confirmed.
The suspect entered the prayer room overnight Sunday, set the Quran ablaze and place outside the Mosque, CMR said in a statement.
CMR termed the act as vile and part of a series of hateful assaults that reflect a worrying and increasingly hostile climate toward Muslims in France.
“It is an act of Islamophobic in nature with appalling cowardice,” it added.
“Noting the murder of Aboubakar Cisse, who was stabbed to death on April 25 while praying at a mosque, as well as the recent killing of a Tunisian man who was shot by his neighbor on Saturday, CMR said that the burning of the Quran occurred within a ‘particularly painful context.'”
CRM strongly condemned the heinous act, calling it a grave violation of the dignity of worshippers and the fundamental principles of French Republic.
