A bus driver imposed a psalmody (the singing of a psalm) from the Koran in Arabic to all his passengers, during a trip between Aix-en-Provence and Marseille this Sunday, November 22.
Despite repeated requests from users to stop the broadcast, the driver did not lower the volume during the trip of about forty minutes.
"
You don't have to do this to us!"
», «
you do not respect secularism, you do not have the right!
“, “
these are verses, it is religious
”, chanted the irritated passengers of line 50, according to France Bleu Provence.
To a user, the driver reportedly replied curtly: “
It's my bus!
I do what I want.
If you are not happy, you go down
”, according to the comments reported by the radio.
General malaise
An "
Algerian pensioner
" nevertheless tried for the umpteenth time to dissuade the driver, in vain.
His wife then tried to bring her husband to his senses by reminding him:
"we are in his hands
", according to the local media.
In a general malaise, no other passenger reacted during the rest of the journey.
Read alsoLaurence de Charette: “The lost matrix of secularism”
According to our colleagues from France Bleu, the driver broadcast sura 166 Al Baqara of the Koran, video in support, on the loudspeakers of the vehicle.
Contacted by
Le Figaro
, the Aix-Marseille Metropolis says that an "
investigation is underway
" and adds that it has "
nothing more to say
".
The driver, summoned since by his employer, was identified by the transport authority, RDT 13. The latter argues that he is not “
an agent of the metropolis but a young recruit from a subcontractor
”, according to France Bleu.
For his part, the driver assured "
that he did not broadcast these verses on the enclosure of the bus, but only on his telephone
", reported Paul Sillou, the director of the transport authority, RDT 13. This bus line 50 is one of the busiest in the metropolis, with an average of 10 to 15,000 users every day on weekdays.
