The driver broadcast verses from the Koran during a bus trip between Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, Sunday November 20. An investigation has been opened.
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 don’t respect secularism, you don’t have the right!», «it’s verses, it’s 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’re not happy, you get off“, according to the remarks reported by the radio.
General malaise
A “Algerian retireestill 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“, always according to the local media. In a general malaise, no other passenger reacted during the rest of the journey.
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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 Figarothe Aix-Marseille Metropolis affirms that a “investigation is ongoing“and adds not having”Nothing more to say“.
The driver, who has since been summoned by his employer, has been identified by the transport authority, RDT 13. The latter claims that he is not “an agent of the metropolis but a young recruit of a subcontractor“, according to France Bleu. For his part, the driver assured “that he did not play these verses on the car speaker, but only on his phone“, 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.
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