Mélenchon Consoles Muslim Woman at Paris Anti-Islamophobia Rally Following Mosque Attack

Gard is in shock from last Friday’s deadly attack. "Mr. Mélenchon, we Muslims go out with a knot in our stomachs, we no longer feel safe at all. A red line has been crossed," a Muslim woman told the political leader during a demonstration against Islamophobia on Sunday, April 27, in the late afternoon at Place de la République in Paris. "That’s certain, Madam," Jean-Luc Mélenchon replied.

Images filmed by the press agency CLPRESS show the LFI leader embracing his interlocutor. "Don’t be afraid," he tells her, visibly moved. He also accused Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau (LR) of cultivating an "Islamophobic climate." Besides Mélenchon, several other left-wing personalities, including Marine Tondelier, national secretary of Europe Écologie Les Verts, participated in the rally.

A silent march in memory of the victim, Aboubakar Cissé, who was in his twenties, was organized Sunday afternoon in La Grand-Combe, near the Khadidja mosque where the tragedy took place. It was attended by more than a thousand people and the mayor of this small town of less than 5,000 inhabitants.

On Monday, the prosecutor in charge of this case announced that the alleged murderer, a 20-year-old man who was actively sought by the police, turned himself in at a police station in central Italy, reports Belga. He is Olivier A., a young man born in Lyon in 2004.