Macron Vows to Protect Muslims After Attack on Bayonne Mosque

"I firmly condemn the odious attack perpetrated in front of the Bayonne mosque," Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter on Monday. Similarly, he hammered that "the Republic will never tolerate hatred," before assuring that all Muslims will be protected. "Everything will be done to punish the perpetrators and protect our Muslim compatriots. I am committed to this," he promised.

But this promise from the President of the French Republic is far from reassuring the leaders of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM). At the time when Claude S., a former candidate of the National Rally (RN), was carrying out his attack, they were received by Emmanuel Macron.

"The concern is great within the Muslim community" of Bayonne, said Abdallah Zekri, general delegate of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), also president of the National Observatory against Islamophobia. For him, "with the current climate of stigmatization of Islam and Muslims, it is not surprising that such acts can happen."

For its part, the Union of Mosques of France (UMF) issued a press release evoking "the serious consequences of hate speech on our Muslim citizens," to call "the Muslims of France to extreme vigilance without ever losing confidence in the values of peace and respect that animate the vast majority of [their] fellow citizens."