Two injured in shooting at French mosque, man arrested

Two men in their seventies were seriously injured onMonday when a man opened fire at a mosque in the southern French cityof Bayonne, local authorities said.The attacker tried to set the door of the mosque on fire, but wassurprised by the two victims, authorities said. He shot them, thenset alight a vehicle while leaving the scene.The attacker was arrested shortly afterwards at his home, thePyrenees-Atlantiques prefecture said in a statement posted on socialmedia. A police source said the man arrested was in his 80s.The attack came amid renewed controversy in France over Islam and,especially, the wearing of headscarves by some observant Muslimwomen.The attack "moves and angers every one of us," Interior MinisterChristophe Castaner wrote on Twitter."Solidarity and support to the Muslim community, who areunderstandably shocked and alarmed," the minister added.Hours earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron met leaders of theofficial body representing Islam in France.Anouar Kbibech of the French Council of the Muslim Religion (CFCM)said the president had "reassured us" that French Muslims should beable to "live their religion."Macron had also told the group that he "counted on us to take stronginitiatives" on topics including extremism, the veil, and the placeof women in Islam, Kbibech told reporters afterwards.The current debate was sparked by a far-right politician who demandedthat a mother accompanying a school trip to the public gallery of aregional assembly be ordered to take off her headscarf.Muslims make up France's largest religious minority, with most ofthem tracing their origins to former French colonies in North Africa.