French Muslim leaders say more steps must be taken to counter France’s anti-Muslim hatred after a man suspected of stabbing a young worshipper and was arrested in a mosque in a southern village.
French prosecutors announced Monday morning that Olivier A, 21, a French national born in Lyon, surrendered to police in Italy on Sunday.
He was suspected of killing Aboubakar Cissé, 22, a Marian man who trained in France and volunteered at the La Grand-Combe mosque in southeastern France.
Olivier A allegedly entered the mosque on Friday morning and stabbed dozens of times. He allegedly photographed the victim in pain with his cell phone. In the camera, a person can hear his congratulations, say “I did it” and shout insults to Allah.
On Friday morning, Cisse went to the mosque alone. When the worshiper began praying later that morning, he found his body.
The incident in the French provincial village caused shock, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to say there is no place in French society where religious hatred is there, and Prime Minister François Bayrou condemned the crime of “Islamophobia”.
Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Muslim Council, told French Information Broadcasting: “The vast majority of Muslims in France feel that anti-Muslim hatred is not as serious as other hatreds.”
He said Muslims were concerned about the current climate and asked why there was no counter-terrorism investigation into the case.
Abdelkrim Grini, the state attorney of the southern city of Iles, told BFMTV on Monday that the attackers allegedly went to an Italian police station near Florence at 11:30 p.m. on Sunday at 2230 bST.
“We know he has left France… It’s only a matter of time before we catch him. The suspect has no choice but to hand over himself,” he said.
Given the nature of the crime and the motives of praying in the mosque, Grini said, “anti-Muslim or Islamophobia” were the main leaders of the investigation.
He said there are other factors in the investigation that might suggest that the suspect is “fascinated by death” and wants to kill and be called a serial killer.”
“My cousin is targeted because he is a Muslim,” Aboubakar Cissé’s cousin told Le Parisien on Sunday.
He said he believed the crime was terrorism: “It was premeditated that the person came to kill someone in the mosque… For us, Abubaka was the victim of the terrorist attack.”
It is understood that the suspect has been unemployed and lives in La Grande-Combe, Los Angeles. “He is a man who has been in the judicial system and the police,” Grini said.
In Los Angeles, a large mountainous area, more than 1,000 people gathered on Sunday to commemorate the victims, departing from the Khadidja Mosque where the stabbing occurred to the town hall.
Abdallah Zekri, principal of the Nimes Mosque, condemned the Islamic climate in France. Hundreds also gathered in Paris on Sunday to protest Islamophobia.
Macron wrote on social media on Sunday, expressing support to families and to “our fellow Muslims.” He posted on X: “Religious-based racism and hatred will never have a place in France.”
The French government has ordered police to strengthen security in mosques across the country.
