With a triple murder at 9:00 a.m. today at the Basilica of Notre Dame of the Assumption, in Nice, a city in southern France near the Italian border, you could be forgiven for thinking France is indeed at war, as President Emmanuel Macron stated about 10 days ago following the decapitation of a school teacher outside his school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a small town to Paris’ southeast. In both attacks the killer used a blade and shouted an Islamic affirmation usually translated as “Allah is Great.” Knowing the crime sites and the victims, worshipers including a sacristan, a middle school history teacher devoted to his students, you would be forgiven, too, for thinking there is something twisted in Islamic education when rendering homage to transcendent greatness is taken as a license to kill.
Governments of Islamic countries and Islamic religious institutions in France expressed condolences, but none have been heard so far enjoining Muslims to act like followers of a religion of peace and, with specific regard to France, to cooperate with security officials in eradicating the assassins in their midst.
