LA GRAND COMBE, France\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A man suspected of killing a Muslim worshiper in a mosque in the south of France was still on the run Sunday, authorities said, in an attack described by Prime Minister Francois Bayrou as Islamophobic.<\/p>\n
The attacker and the victim were alone in the mosque in the former mining town of La Grand Combe on Friday when the stabbing occurred. The assailant recorded the attack on his phone, and security camera video showed him shouting insults at Allah, local media said.<\/p>\n
Bayrou denounced the attack an act of \u201cIslamophobic ignominy displayed on video.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stand shoulder to shoulder with the victim\u2019s family and the shocked worshipers,\u201d he said. \u201cThe resources of the state are being mobilized to ensure that the murderer is caught and punished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini said Sunday that investigators are taking into account \u201cthe possibility that this was an Islamophobic act. It\u2019s the one we\u2019re working on first, but it\u2019s not the only one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRacism and hatred based on religion will never have a place in France,\u201d French President Emmanuel Macron said. \u201cReligious freedom is inviolable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grini said images of the stabbing he has viewed were \u201chorrifying.\u201d He said police were working nonstop to find the suspect, with 70 investigators deployed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re being particularly vigilant to make sure he doesn\u2019t claim any more victims,\u201d Grini said. The suspect was born in France in 2004, lived in the area and did not have a criminal record, Grini said. <\/p>\n
The Grand Mosque of Paris condemned the attack in a statement and said the victim, a young man identified only as Aboubakar in French media, had just finished cleaning the mosque when he was killed. <\/p>\n
It called on authorities to quickly shed light on the motive behind the attack, asking judicial authorities to say whether it is being treated as a terrorist act and to note its \u201cscale and seriousness … for the safety of all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin called the stabbing a \u201cdespicable murder\u201d that \u201cwounds the hearts of all believers, of all Muslims in France.\u201d<\/p>\n
The SOS Racisme campaign group joined the calls for more clarity in the investigation and took part in a march organized later Sunday at La Grand Combe in support of the victim. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau traveled to the nearby town of Ales to meet with local Muslim faith officials and pledged to stop the attacker.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, the possibility of an anti-Muslim act is not at all neglected; quite the contrary,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is out of the question to tolerate this kind of act in this hyper-violent society.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Paris, a rally against Islamophobia and in tribute to the victim was held at the Place de la R\u00e9publique.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LA GRAND COMBE, France\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A man suspected of killing a Muslim worshiper in a mosque in the south of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[3852,11413,29783,29780,2000,299,36,29775,29779,29782,29781,29777,1411,29778,2800,29776,10393],"class_list":{"0":"post-56402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-act","9":"tag-attack","10":"tag-attacker","11":"tag-authority","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-france","15":"tag-french-mosque","16":"tag-grini","17":"tag-islamophobic","18":"tag-la-grand-combe","19":"tag-muslim-worshiper","20":"tag-paris","21":"tag-run-sunday","22":"tag-stabbing","23":"tag-suspect","24":"tag-victim"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114413442797693475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}