France's interior minister sought Wednesday to halt violence and ease tensions in Corsica after protesters vandalized a Muslim prayer room in anger over an ambush of firefighters.

The incidents last week on the
Mediterranean island reflect broader
religious and social tensions
around France after a year marred by
extremist attacks by a few angry
young French Muslims.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve,
visiting the Corsican city of Ajaccio
on Wednesday, told reporters "there
is no place in Corsica for violence or
racism."
"Our country, in the face of ...
terrorism and the divisions it creates,
has a great need for respect," he
said.
An ambush Thursday injured two
firefighters responding to an
emergency in a housing project. The
reason for the attack remains
unclear, though crime is widespread
in France's housing projects, where
many poor young men of North
African or other minority heritage
harbor deep suspicions toward police
and the government.The next day, hundreds of Corsicans

demonstrated peacefully against the
violence. But then a few dozen
protesters, assuming that the
assailants were Muslims, broke away
and tried to burn Qurans in a Muslim
prayer room and vandalized a kebab
shop.
Cazeneuve said two people have
been handed preliminary charges in
the ambush of firefighters, but did
not identify them. A judicial inquiry is
under way into all the violence
around Ajaccio last week.
"The attacks and threats that target
our compatriots of the Muslim faith
are inadmissible," he said. "The
people they are aimed at, many of
whom were born here and deeply
love this island, do not feel less
Corsican than those who adhere to
this discourse of hate."
Cazeneuve and Prime Minister
Manuel Valls sought to quash any
link between the incidents and
separatist sentiment in Corsica,
which has long had a tense
relationship with Paris.
Valls, in an interview with Le Parisien
published Wednesday, said Corsica's
place within France "will never be
negotiable."