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Ludovic Mohammed Zahed is braced for controversy, maybe even worse. A gay Muslim and an expert on the Koran, Zahed plans to open Europe's first gay-friendly mosque in Paris at the end of this month. He calls it a place of shelter as well as a place of worship. "We need to have a safe space for people who do not feel comfortable and at ease in normal mosques," Zahed told ABC News. "There are transgender people who fear aggression, women who do not want to wear head scarf or sit in the back of the mosque. This project gives...

It is known as the City of Love, where couples flock to capture the magic of their romance. But a set of gritty photographs almost 100-years-old captures a side of Paris that most people will never know existed. The 1914 pictures, taken from a collection at the Albert Kahn Museum in Paris, paint a vivid picture of everyday life in the French capital.

MARSEILLE, France (JTA) -- A Jewish man was attacked and rendered unconscious in a Paris metro, a local watchdog reported. The 52-year-old victim entered the subway directly from his synagogue but wore no markings that would identify him as Jewish, according to a report on the late September incident by the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, a nonprofit watchdog organization. The incident occurred on the eve of Rosh Hashanah. He may have been targeted because of a Jewish philosophy book by the chief rabbi of Paris that he was reading in the metro when he was attacked,...

A French satirical magazine is set to publish several cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed on Wednesday, a move that is likely to inflame the Islamic faithful and militants who have already rioted in more than 20 countries over a movie mocking the prophet. Depictions of the prophet are strictly prohibited and considered blasphemous by Muslims. Cartoons of Muhammad published in Denmark in 2005 and then reproduced in newspapers across Europe triggered riots throughout the Mideast and Africa. Churches and embassies were torched and at least 100 people died in the outbreaks and police crackdowns. The magazine “Charlie Hebdo” has confirmed...

French admit they are 'rude, stroppy, and slothful' The French have admitted they are "rude, stroppy, and slothful" in a new survey about what they think of their own behaviour. The poll revealed 97 per cent of Paris public transport users believed fellow travellers were "ill-mannered" and lacked civility. The biggest gripe was people forcing their way onto trains before other passengers had got off. Other irritations were passengers talking too loudly on mobile phones, and people sprawling over two seats in packed carriages. Also included in the list of annoyances were queue-jumping at ticket counters, leaping over barriers without...

Old photos of the Statue of Liberty standing in Paris were extraordinarily surreal In science fiction filmdom, the destruction of the Statue of Liberty is merely a sign that the carnage is chugging along at a steady tack. But reality provides some equally strange views of Lady Liberty, particularly when she was under construction in Paris during the mid-1880s. Here are some curious photographs of this iconic Statue in various states of disarray. The Statue of Liberty was supposed to be a centennial gift from France to the United States, but funding difficulties waylaid the project for almost a decade....

Lesson of the day, even if you have diplomatic immunity it would probably be best if you paid your hotel bill before trying to skip out in the middle of the night, especially when that bill is $7.5 million and you can’t exactly “sneak” away with a 60 person entourage. That was exactly what happened in December at a luxury hotel in Paris when Saudi Princess Maha al-Sudani (ex to Crown Prince Nayef ben Abdel Aziz) tried to leave the Shangri-La without paying her massively huge bill. The Saudi princess racked up her bill after taking over a 41-room floor...

Algerian radical spills beans on bin Laden "terror network" An Algerian Islamic radical arrested in France has proved a goldmine for investigators probing Osama bin Laden's militant network in Europe in the wake of the September 11 attacks, magistrates told AFP. French investigators now believe that after key testimonies from a handful of well placed members of bin Laden's al-Qaeda network the exiled Saudi extremist's secret organisation in Europe is unravelling fast. Since his arrest in Paris last Monday 27-year-old Yacine Aknouche has revealed his links with several al-Qaeda suspects including "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th...

A US Airways jet traveling from Paris to North Carolina was diverted to Maine on Tuesday after a "French" passenger handed a note to a flight attendant mentioning that she had a surgically implanted device, raising fears of a terror scenario that security officials had warned about. What is disturbing is the lack of coverage and relevant reporting on this act of terror in the skies. The would-be terrorist is described as a "French" woman. What's her name? Read the tea leaves. The Cameroon-born woman was traveling alone with no checked baggage and visiting the United States for 10 days...

BANGOR, Maine – A US Airways jet flying from Paris to Charlotte, North Carolina, has been diverted to Maine because of what an airline spokesman calls a "security issue." A North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman says two F-15 fighters were scrambled to escort the plane. A person briefed on the incident said a passenger announced she had a surgically implanted device. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because it involved sensitive law enforcement information. US Airways spokesman Andrew Christie says the jet with 179 passengers was diverted around noon Tuesday to Bangor International Airport. He says there was...

Explanation: Did you see that full Moon Saturday night? Dubbed a supermoon, the latest fully illuminated moon appeared slightly larger than usual because it occurred unusually near the closest point in its orbit to Earth. Pictured above, the supermoon was captured Saturday night rising behind the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. Of course, the angular extent of the moon in comparison to foreground objects can be adjusted just by changing the observer's distance to the foreground object. When compared to nearby objects the moon may appear tiny, but when compared to distant objects -- the moon may...

A record-breaking 5,000 people from throughout France have thus far visited an aliyah fair taking place in the heart of Paris today, the same day as the French run-off election. The fair, organized and run by the Jewish Agency, is being attended by Jewish Agency Chairman of the Executive Natan Sharansky, as well as by representatives of various Israeli local authorities and government bodies, who are meeting with participants and presenting them with various opportunities for settling in Israel. Jewish Agency Chairman Sharansky noted emotionally that thousands of members of the French Jewish community had visited the fair. “I cannot...

Four people were shot dead in the space of five months in the Essonne area south of Paris, all with the same type of semi-automatic weapon by a gunman who fled on a motorbike, recalling the attacks of a scooter-driving Islamist extremist killed by police in southern France last month after murdering seven people. Unlike the Mohamed Merah Toulouse killings, there is no suggestion of any political or religious motives in the shootings. The latest victim, Nadjia Boudjemia-Lahcenea, 47, of Algerian descent, was shot dead in the entrance hall to her block of flats in the Grande-Borne district of Grigny,...

Explanation: Do you recognize the city lights of Paris in this picture? Taken on March 25 from the top of the 210 meter tall Montparnasse skyscraper, many will spot the looming Eiffel Tower, or the large domed structure of Les Invalides (right), or the colorfully lit elevated Metro train line gently curving toward picture center. You can even pick out the Arc de Triomphe close to the horizon on the right. But regardless of your location, the celestial lights near the western horizon should look very familiar. The lovely triple conjuntion of brilliant Venus (top), Jupiter, and a young crescent...

Mohammed Merah belonged to extreme Salafi group that works to topple French democracy • Group’s website shut down with homepage reading: “Due to great pressures brought upon us, we have dismantled the Forsane al-Izza movement.” Mohammed Merah, the confessed murderer of three children and a rabbi at a Toulouse Jewish school this week, was not a lone wolf, and on Wednesday the testimonies poured in about his involvement with a Salafi (extreme strand of Sunni Islam) group named Forsane al-Izza (FA). The “Knights of Pride”- as the group’s name means in English - was founded in France about a year...

A 12-year-old boy was beaten outside his Jewish school in Paris by youths reciting anti-Semitic slogans, school officials said, amid high security and tensions in France following killings of Jewish children and a rabbi last week... Both the school shooting and this week's beating involved the Ozar Hatorah network of Jewish schools. Emotions have been raw in France, especially within the half-million-strong Jewish community, since a gunman shot a rabbi and his two sons, 3 and 5 years old, and the 8-year-old daughter of the principal of the Ozar Hatorah School in the southern city of Toulouse on March 19....

The evolution toward smaller, more autonomous and decentralized organizational structures has been identified as a key trend in jihadi terrorism during the past few years [1]. Confronting amorphous structures and networks, which lack clearly identifiable organizational linkages and command structures and in which self-radicalization and self-recruitment are key elements, is a formidable challenge for security services [2]. The jihadi decentralization trend is clearly a result of counter-terrorism successes. These "defeats" have been scrutinized and digested in the writings of key jihadi theoreticians during the past few years. New roadmaps and operational concepts are being explored as the jihadis search for...

"Two men reported to have links to fundamentalist Catholic groups were arrested at the weekend while attempting to disable the theatre's security system." Catholics protest against 'blasphemous' play in Paris Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 December 2011 13.16 EST Article history The Théâtre du Rond-Point's staging of Golgota Picnic is the latest target in a wave of demonstrations across France An earlier French protest against Golgota Picnic in November by fundamentalist Christians in Toulouse. Photograph: Remy Gabalda/AFP One of Paris's most prestigious theatres was being protected by riot police and guard-dog patrols on Thursday after it became the latest target...

Catholic fundamentalists have been gathering outside a Parisian theatre, at one point barging in, to protest against a play featuring the face of Christ allegedly covered with fake excrement. Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have been hot topics in French society over the years, but these days, it’s anti-Christian sentiment that’s making front-page news. For the past week, throngs of Catholic fundamentalists have been brandishing crosses, chanting in Latin, and dropping to their knees in prayer outside a popular Parisian theatre to protest against a play featuring the face of Christ allegedly covered with fake excrement. The work in question, Italian Romeo...

The offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo have been destroyed by a petrol bomb, French police say. It comes a day after the publication named the Prophet Muhammad as its "editor-in-chief" for its next issue.