Paris Mosque Rector Faces Backlash Over Controversial Tweet About Non-Believers

"The believers will prostrate themselves while the unbelievers will hardly be able to, their backs will remain stiff and when one of them wishes to prostrate himself, his neck will go in the opposite direction as the unbelievers did in this world, unlike the believers," the Rector wrote and then deleted on his Twitter account.

These remarks, described as violent, come the day after the attack on the British writer, author of the novel "The Satanic Verses", Salman Rushdie, in the United States. This was followed by a wave of outrage on the web. "If it had been someone else who had issued such a fatwa, Darmanin would have demanded his expulsion by military force, but since he is his friend, he is burying his head in the sand," protested an Internet user.

"All Men will always remain with their heads stiff like Salman Rushdie. We are still waiting for your post following the assassination attempt," retorted a French Internet user, while another finds this tweet from the official "hallucinating especially the day after the Islamist attack against Salman Rushdie".

"Salman Rushdie is fighting for his life after being stabbed [...] and here is the only tweet from the Rector of the Great Mosque of Paris. Not a word on Salman Rushdie, not a word of compassion and a tweet that can be read as support for the assassin," another one criticizes.