THE TELEGRAPH: A Lyons stone mason has provoked a row after creating a gargoyle for the city's cathedral in the image of his Muslim foreman with a sign saying "Allahu Akbar" (God is great[er]) in both Arabic and French.
The 12th century Saint-Jean cathedral of Lyons, southeastern France, has hundreds of gargoyles around its roof whose traditional role has been to ward off evil spirits.
Since August, this seat of the Archbishop of Lyons has a new addition – a face remarkably similar to Ahmed Benzizine, a Muslim foreman who has been restoring churches and cathedrals in France for the past 37 years.
Emmanuel Fourchet, a local stone mason decided to immortalise his friend according to an age-old tradition of carving gargoyles resembling associates that stretches right back to the cathedral's construction.
"It could have been the face of a Portuguese man or anyone else but it happens to be an Algerian Muslim Arab – my friend Ahmed," he said.
However, while some have praised the initiative as a unifying "ecumenical gesture", the move has sparked cries of blasphemy among the more conservative elements of the churchgoing community who have sent angry letters of complaint. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Monday, September 06, 2010
