Marches ‘towards Islamophobia’ have been organised all through France within the sufferer’s reminiscence.
A person suspected of killing a Muslim worshipper in a mosque in southern France stays on the run, authorities say, in an incident that Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has branded as “Islamophobic”.
Each males have been alone within the mosque in La Grand-Combe, a former mining city within the Gard area, on Friday when the sufferer was fatally stabbed. The assailant reportedly recorded the assault on his cellphone and filmed the dying Malian man, who was in his 20s.
A supply near the case, who requested to not be named, mentioned the suspected perpetrator, whereas not apprehended, has been recognized as a non-Muslim, French citizen of Bosnian origin, in response to the AFP information company.
After initially praying alongside the person, the attacker stabbed the sufferer about 50 instances earlier than fleeing the scene. The physique was discovered later within the morning, when different worshippers arrived on the mosque for Friday prayers.
The suspect, who has been recognized solely as Olivier – born in France in 2004 and unemployed, with no prison file – is “doubtlessly extraordinarily harmful” and it’s “important” to arrest him earlier than he claims extra victims, in response to regional prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini.
The Grand Mosque of Paris condemned the assault in an announcement and mentioned the sufferer had simply completed cleansing the mosque when he was killed.
It referred to as on authorities to shortly make clear the explanations behind the assault, asking judicial authorities to say whether or not it’s being handled as a “terrorist” act and to notice its “scale and seriousness … for the security of all”.
“Racism and hatred based mostly on faith can don’t have any place in France. Freedom of worship can’t be violated,” President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X on Sunday in his first feedback on the killing, extending his assist to “our fellow Muslim residents”.
Un jeune a été atrocement assassiné dans une mosquée du Gard.
À sa famille, à nos compatriotes de confession musulmane, j’adresse le soutien de la Nation.
Le racisme et la haine en raison de la faith n’auront jamais leur place en France. La liberté de culte est intangible.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 27, 2025
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin on Saturday decried the “despicable homicide” that “wounds the hearts of all believers, of all Muslims in France”.
“We stand shoulder to shoulder with the sufferer’s household and the shocked worshippers,” he mentioned. “The sources of the state are being mobilised to make sure that the assassin is caught and punished.”
Inside Minister Bruno Retailleau introduced on Sunday that he would journey to La Grand-Combe.
The SOS Racisme marketing campaign group mentioned it might participate in a march “towards Islamophobia” organised in a while Sunday at La Grand-Combe.
Extra marches are additionally deliberate on Sunday night all through France, together with at Paris’s Place de la Republique. The marchers will observe a minute’s silence in reminiscence of the sufferer.
Paris place de la république 18h pic.twitter.com/mtyEAF75Pb
— Rima Hassan (@RimaHas) April 27, 2025
A number of outstanding members of the far-left La France Insoumise get together have referred to as on folks to attend the protests on social media, together with Member of European Parliament and Palestinian rights activist Rima Hassan, and Inexperienced Celebration chief Marine Tondelier.
