Muslim pilgrims visit Jerusalem

French Imam Hassan Chalghoumi is a busy man. Having come back from Israel just a few days ago, he is already preparing his next trip. He has scheduled for the coming months not one visit but at least four more pilgrim voyages. And no, he is not going to Mecca, but to Jerusalem. He is a man with a mission. 

Chalghoumi's life journey is unique. The young Muslim leader arrived from Tunisia to France 17 years ago, after studying in fundamentalist madrassas both in Syria and Pakistan. He called for jihad. But his encounters in France and elsewhere brought a profound change, and he has become an ardent supporter of the bill proposed by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy against wearing the burqa in public spaces. His position brought on him the wrath of extreme Muslims in France, but the more they opposed him, the more moderate his discourse became, preaching for tolerance and dialogue.

In November 2012, Chalghoumi made another bold move. He headed a delegation of 19 imams on a first-of-its-kind visit to Israel, under the auspices of the French Embassy in Tel Aviv. The Muslim religious leaders visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and prayed by the graves of the Toulouse shooting, where three children and a teacher of a Jewish school were murdered in March 2012 by a young French-Algerian Muslim. 

Their visit received extensive media coverage, on the backdrop of growing anti-Israeli emotions in France and elsewhere in Europe.