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Middle East Eye
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
For Muslims in France, there is no safe place
Late last month, the news broke: Aboubakar Cisse, a young Black Muslim man of Malian descent, had been killed inside a mosque in southern France. Initially described in the media as a personal dispute, that narrative quickly fell apart as a local prosecutor announced the case was being investigated as 'an act with Islamophobic connotations'. Cisse wasn't just killed; he was targeted in a sacred space. After cleaning the mosque for Friday prayers, surveillance footage showed him teaching another man how to pray. As Cisse prostrated himself in prayer, the other man pretended to follow along before pulling out a knife, stabbing him 57 times and shouting vile Islamophobic slurs. The emotional wreckage this has caused is immense. Since the footage surfaced, each detail has deepened the Muslim community's collective grief, and ignited a seething anger. Like many others, I've found myself asking the same question over and over: could we have prevented this? I wish I could say I was shocked. But as a visibly Muslim French woman who leads a pan-European network of Muslim youth and student groups, I know we've seen the warning signs for years. These signs have been deliberately ignored. Cisse was young, Black and Muslim. He quietly served his community, like so many people who sustain the spaces where others find peace. And yet, he also embodies everything that political hate merchants have spent years dehumanising. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Decades of bigotry Even with stark video evidence, many are still refusing to label this incident as a hate crime at the convergence of Islamophobia and anti-Black racism. It was not a personal quarrel, but the inevitable outcome of decades of normalised bigotry. A Bosnian French man has been arrested in the case. His lawyer denies that Cisse was targeted because of his religion, but to Abdallah Zekri, vice president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, the evidence is clear: 'This is an Islamophobic crime, the worst of all those committed in France against our community.' This isn't about one deranged individual. It's about an entire ecosystem of hate, one that is propped up by state policies cloaked in neutrality, media narratives that cast Muslims as threats, and daily indignities faced by Muslim students, workers and families. A Europe where Cisse could be murdered in his own mosque cannot call itself a union of equality, freedom and human rights Cisse's brutal killing is not an anomaly, but rather the logical endpoint of a political project that turns fears into votes and citizens into targets. When a veiled Muslim woman in France has an 80 percent lower chance of landing a job interview; when Muslim schools face disproportionate scrutiny; and when a man can be murdered in his own mosque, nowhere is truly safe for Muslims in France. We have raised the alarm for years. We've asked for dialogue, protection and dignity. But our calls have been been met with locked doors and institutional exclusion. This is no longer political inaction. It is complicity. I no longer blame only hate-spewing politicians who scapegoat Muslims for electoral gain - those who just weeks ago screamed 'down with the veil', and who glorify colonial nostalgia, systematically refusing to see Muslim citizens as part of the European 'we'. I also blame those who acknowledge our pain in public, while ignoring our warnings behind closed doors. From local councillors to European institutions, their silence is not neutral; it is deadly. How many more? Across France, people have gathered in spontaneous vigils to mourn Cisse. And this was not the first time. After Marwa el-Sherbini's murder in 2009, we asked: how many more? After the murder of Makram Ali in 2017, again we asked: how many more? But now, after the brutal killing of Cisse, we are done asking. We are shouting: enough. How many more lives must Islamophobia claim before it is treated as the structural threat it is? How many more mosques must become crime scenes before the safety of European Muslims becomes a non-negotiable political priority? French Muslims find 'Islamophobic' violence is overlooked after mosque murder Read More » We don't need more token consultations and empty statements. We need urgent and systemic transformation. Fighting Islamophobia means treating Muslims as partners in shaping Europe, not as threats to be managed. It means recognising Islamophobia as a form of racism rooted in colonial legacies, not simply as religious intolerance. The EU anti-racism strategy must be co-created with Muslim communities. It must acknowledge the intersectional nature of discrimination, and avoid fragmenting the struggle by isolating Islamophobia from broader anti-racism efforts. If we fail to connect the dots, ignoring how Islamophobia intersects with anti-Blackness and structural exclusion, then the most marginalised people will continue to pay the price for Europe's indifference. Despite the grief, fear and anger, mosques will remain spaces of welcome and dignity - just as Cisse embodied. We owe this to our youth, to our future, and to the very idea of Europe. Because a Europe where Cisse could be murdered in his own mosque cannot call itself a union of equality, freedom and human rights. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Middle East Eye
01-05-2025
- Middle East Eye
French Muslims find ‘Islamophobic' violence is overlooked after mosque murder
Djilali Dhafer is stunned. A resident of the village of La Grand-Combe near Ales, in southern France, he still cannot come to terms with the tragedy that struck a neighbouring hamlet a few days ago. Kadidja, the small mosque in Trescol, which he regularly attends, was the scene of a horrific crime. On Friday, at around 8.30am, Olivier Hadzovik, a 20-year-old Bosnian-Frenchman, entered the place of worship where he was greeted by his future victim. Aboubakar Cisse, a 23-year-old Malian man, was cleaning the mosque before the Friday prayer. A few minutes later, surveillance footage showed the two men in the prayer room. As Cisse prostrated himself in prayer, Hadzovik pretended to imitate him before brandishing a knife and stabbing him dozens of times in the back, 57 times in total. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "He then filmed himself in a state of jubilation, insulting God so as to leave an Islamophobic mark on his monstrous act," Dhafer told Middle East Eye. In a video he posted on Snapchat, the killer proudly claimed responsibility for his crime. "I did it, I did it," he rejoiced. He then uttered a few incomprehensible words and added: "Your shitty Allah, your shitty Allah." For Abdallah Zekri, vice president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) and chairman of the Observatory Against Islamophobia, the characterisation of the murder should be unequivocal. "This is an Islamophobic crime, the worst of all those committed in France against our community," he told MEE. 'We are accused of every evil and presented as the enemies of France, while the violence we are suffering is completely ignored' - Abdallah Zekri, French Council of the Muslim Faith "After the desecration of graves, vandalism of Muslim places of worship and businesses, insults and physical violence, they are now killing worshippers inside mosques," he added, in reference to numerous incidents that have targeted French mosques in recent years, including arson attacks and pig heads found at their doors. According to Zekri, the mosque murder is "the result of a growing stigmatisation of Muslims in France," fuelled by the shift to the right of the political class and the growth of Islamophobic rhetoric. "From morning to night, the far-right media are bashing Muslims. You turn on the television and what do you hear? Islam, Muslims, migrants, OQTFs [deportation orders], it's only about this," he told MEE. "We [Muslims] are accused of every evil and presented as the enemies of France, while the violence we are suffering is completely ignored," he added. 'A terrorist attack' After three days on the run, Cisse's killer surrendered to the police near Florence, Italy. In a first statement to the media, his Italian lawyer, Giovanni Battista Salvietti, insisted that his client did not target his victim because of his religion. "We asked him why he killed a Muslim. He replied that he didn't kill any Muslims, but the first person he found. The fact that the victim was a Muslim was a coincidence," the lawyer told the media. "Regarding the crime, the mosque, it's as if he remembers nothing, as if he knew nothing about it. He says he got up with the conviction that he had to kill someone," he added. For Dhafer, this explanation is infuriating. 'They're going to tell us again that the killer is a madman. That's always how they present the perpetrators of Islamophobic crimes' - Djilali Dhafer, La Grand-Combe resident "They're going to tell us again that the killer is a madman. That's always how they present the perpetrators of Islamophobic crimes," he said. Ibrahim Cisse, Aboubakar's cousin, immediately rejected the framing of the incident as an isolated act committed by a psychologically unstable person. "What happened is terrorism: it was premeditated, the person came consciously to kill someone in a mosque. We cannot accept to hear that this is an act of madness. I repeat, Aboubakar, for us, was the victim of a terrorist attack," he told the press. On Sunday, the lawyer for the victim's family made the same observation. "At this stage, the analysis of the known elements leaves no doubt: this was a terrorist attack," Mourad Battikh said in a statement, adding that the national anti-Tterrorism prosecutor's office had to take up the case without delay. On Monday, while Hadzovik had not yet been transferred to France, a judicial investigation was opened by the local prosecutor's office for premeditated murder on the grounds of race or religion. However, the terrorist motivation was not retained as requested by the victim's family and their lawyer. Two members of the government, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and Overseas Minister Emmanuel Valls, denied the Islamophobic dimension of the case. "[Islamophobia] is a term that was invented over 30 years ago by the Iranian mullahs," Valls said. France: Premier denounces 'Islamophobic' killing of Muslim man in mosque Read More » However, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou did use the term to refer to the crime on Saturday. "The ignominy of Islamophobia exposed itself on a video," he wrote on X, referring to the video posted by Hadzovik. The suspected denial of Islamophobia by a part of the political class brought together hundreds of demonstrators in La Grand-Combe and Paris two days after the crime. Zekri, who attended a silent march in the bereaved village, told MEE about a climate of immeasurable grief compounded by worry and anger. "People on the ground fear that other murders will target Muslims. They feel they are safe nowhere," he said. During the Paris demonstration, a woman was filmed crying in front of the leader of the left-wing French Unbowed (La France Insoumise, LFI) party, Jean-Luch Melenchon. "Mr Melenchon, we Muslims no longer feel safe. We go out with fear in our belly, we no longer feel safe at all. A red line has been crossed," she said. Her emotion was shared by the LFI leader, who denounced an Islamophobic political climate responsible for the death of the young Malian. "When the interior minister in a meeting [against Islamism in March] says 'down with the veil,' can we imagine that someone shouted 'down with crucifixes?''" Melenchon said, accusing Retailleau of fuelling hatred against Muslims. Sharp rise in anti-Muslim acts For Vincent Geisser, the author of The New Islamophobia book and director of the Institute of Research and Studies on the Arab and Islamic Worlds (Iremam), politicians like Retailleau and Valls are to blame for the rise in anti-Muslim acts in France. "They bear moral responsibility because they play on the fear of Islam and the fantasy of the Islamisation of French society," he told MEE. Geisser also accuses political figures of downplaying cases targeting the Muslim communities by dismissing them as mere criminal acts. 'Down with the veil': Muslim athletes outraged by French bill to ban hijab in sports Read More » "In France, you have three homicides a day. Some are abominable. I don't go every time [to meet the victims' communities]," Retaillau told a journalist who raised accusations of double standards in the handling of crimes linked to religious beliefs after Cisse's murder. In the hours following the crime, several media outlets and political leaders conveyed an initial version of events which presented the killing as stemming from an intercommunal quarrel. "A worshipper stabbed to death by another worshipper in a mosque," some media reported, based on an initial statement by the public prosecutor. "This, in my opinion, reveals a very communitarian and tribal view of the facts," Geisser told MEE. "We never take racist crimes targeting Muslims seriously and we don't recognise Muslims' right to be victims," he said, adding that Cisse's murder was even rumoured to be a drug-related incident. In parliament, left-wing MPs called on the interior minister to resign. "You fanned the flames of hatred, and today hatred has killed again," said Sabrina Sebaihi, a Green MP. According to the National Directorate of Territorial Intelligence, 79 anti-Muslim acts have been recorded since last January, representing a 72 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2024. However, according to the president of the CFCM, these figures are not representative. "People don't file complaints because, each time, they are told that the perpetrator cannot be identified, and therefore the case is closed," said Zekri, who fears a resurgence of Islamophobic acts during the upcoming municipal and presidential elections, which will be held in 2026 and 2027 respectively. In February, the interior ministry, along with an NGO dedicated to combating discrimination, Addam, launched a platform to better record anti-Muslim acts. Today, the group is calling on the French government to "recognise Islamophobia as a major threat to the Republic."
Ya Biladi
28-04-2025
- Ya Biladi
French Muslim Council condemns Islamophobic murder in La Grand-Combe mosque
The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) has expressed its horror at the attack carried out in the prayer room of the mosque in La Grand-Combe (Gard), where a young Muslim man was brutally murdered. In a statement released this Sunday, the representative body of the Muslim faith in France condemned «in the strongest terms» this «barbaric and despicable act» and called on Muslims to exercise «extreme vigilance». The victim, Aboubakar, 22, was stabbed between 40 and 50 times by an individual. The attacker filmed the scene—later shared on Snapchat—while uttering Islamophobic insults. The CFCM extended its «deepest condolences» to the victim's family and to all Muslims in France, who are «shaken, traumatized, and horrified» by what it described as a terrorist act motivated by Islamophobia. According to initial findings from the investigation, the attacker had approached Aboubakar asking for help learning how to pray. In a gesture of kindness, the young man—described as exemplary and devoted—agreed to assist him. It was during the moment of prostration that he was cowardly stabbed. The CFCM, which has been warning authorities for months about the dangerous trivialization and media exposure of anti-Muslim hatred, said the attack in La Grand-Combe tragically highlights the seriousness of the phenomenon. The organization also lamented the media coverage of the attack, expressing concern that early reports wrongly suggested a personal dispute between two worshippers, thereby downplaying the profoundly Islamophobic nature of the crime. In light of this alarming situation, the CFCM reiterated its call for vigilance, noting that the public prosecutor has indicated the alleged perpetrator—still at large—could commit further crimes. The CFCM advised worshippers not to remain alone in mosques and urged public authorities to promptly activate a national plan to strengthen the protection of Muslim places of worship.
New Straits Times
28-04-2025
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Macron warns against religious hate after Muslim killed in mosque
LA GRAND-COMBE: France's President Emmanuel Macron lashed out Sunday against "racism and hatred" after the brutal stabbing to death of a Muslim in a mosque in the south of the country. Officials said the attacker, who is on the run, stabbed Aboubakar Cisse, a young Malian in his early 20s, dozens of times and then filmed him with a mobile phone while shouting insults at Islam. The attack in the village of La Grand-Combe in the Gard region was the latest in a series of deadly stabbings in France in recent years. It shocked the country's leaders, with Macron finally speaking out on X on Sunday. "Racism and hatred based on religion can have no place in France. Freedom of worship cannot be violated," he wrote, offering support to "our fellow Muslim citizens." French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou earlier branded it an "Islamophobic atrocity" – although the prosecutor in the case emphasised that Islamophobia is just one of the motives being considered. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said in televised comments on Sunday that he had ordered police to tighten security at mosques around the country. Around 1,000 people on Sunday marched through La Grand-Combe, which has just 5,000 inhabitants, to remember the victim. Hundreds also rallied in Paris, where far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon accused the government of nurturing a "climate of Islamophobia" at a time when immigration is top of the political agenda. Retailleau accused Melenchon's party of exploiting the attack for political ends. Investigators said the alleged killer sent the video he had filmed with his phone – showing the victim writhing in agony – to another person, who then shared it on a social media platform before deleting it. A source close to the case, who asked not to be named, said the suspected perpetrator, while not apprehended, had been identified as a French citizen of Bosnian origin who is not a Muslim. After initially praying alongside the man when they were alone in the mosque, the attacker stabbed the victim up to 50 times before fleeing the scene. The body of the victim was discovered later in the morning when other worshippers arrived at the mosque for Friday prayers. The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) said it was "horrified" by the "anti-Muslim terrorist attack" and urged Muslims in France to be "extremely vigilant." "The murder of a worshipper in a mosque is a despicable crime that must revolt the hearts of all French people," added the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). The attacker has been named only as Olivier A., born in France in 2004 and unemployed without a criminal record. He is "potentially extremely dangerous" and it is "essential" to arrest him before he claims more victims, said regional prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini. But while the motive of Islamophobia is the lead that the 70 investigators are "working on as a priority... it is not the only one", Grini said. There are "certain elements (which) could suggest that this motive was perhaps not the primary motive... or the only motive," he added, without elaborating. Grini was speaking in the regional centre of Ales, near La Grand-Combe, alongside Retailleau, a hardline right-winger who takes a tough line on immigration and Islam.
AsiaOne
28-04-2025
- Politics
- AsiaOne
French politicians condemn mosque stabbing attack, World News
PARIS - French politicians on Sunday (April 27) condemned an attack in which a man was stabbed to death while praying at a mosque in southern France, an incident that was captured on video and disseminated on Snapchat. President Emmanuel Macron offered his support to the man's family and to the French Muslim community, writing in a post on X: "Racism and religiously motivated hatred will never belong in France." Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on Sunday visited the town of Ales where Friday's attack took place and met with religious leaders. He said the suspect, who was still at large, had made anti-Muslim comments and had said he wanted to kill others. "So there is a fascination with violence," Retailleau told French broadcaster BFM TV. The town's prosecutor told reporters on Sunday the suspect had been identified. The suspect's brother had been questioned by investigators on Saturday. A march to commemorate the victim took place in the nearby town of La Grand-Combe, on Sunday afternoon and a demonstration against Islamophobia was expected in Paris in the evening. France, a country that prides itself on its homegrown secularism known as "laicite," has the largest Muslim population in Europe, numbering more than six million and making up around 10 per cent of the country's population. But politicians across the political spectrum, including Macron, have attacked what they described as Islamist separatism and radical Islam, in a way that rights and Muslim groups have said could make it harder for Muslims to express their identity. The French Council of the Muslim Faith on Sunday urged authorities to launch a national plan to protect Muslim places of worship. [[nid:717207]]
