Leftists Use Stabbing of Muslim Man to Denounce ‘Islamophobia’ in France as Bosnian Heritage Man Arrested

The French far-left has attempted to condemn the entire society following the brutal killing of a Muslim worshipper in a mosque in Southern France, allegedly committed by a Bosnian-heritage man.

On Friday, 24-year-old Aboubakar was stabbed to death at the prayer room of the La Grand-Combe mosque in Gard. According to reports, 21-year-old Bosnian heritage “Olivier H.” approached Aboubakar, asked him how to pray, and when the man knelt to the floor, he allegedly took out a large knife and stabbed him around 40 times. While filming the horrific attack, Olivier is said to have proclaimed “I did it” and screamed “Your shitty Allah”, according to CCTV footage.

Crucially, Aboubakar’s body was not discovered for a few hours, allowing the perpetrator time to flee. After reaching Pistoia in the Tuscany region of Italy, after reportedly being shuffled frequently between safe houses of family members and friends within the “Traveller” (Gypsy) community, suspect Olivier was finally captured by police on Monday morning.

Prosecutors said that the evidence suggests that the Bosnian-heritage man had “hatched with the intention of killing a faithful Muslim,” but caveated that while “an anti-Muslim act is favoured,” it is not the only motive being investigated, Le Figaro reported.

Investigators noted that Olivier came from a “Christian” Bosnian family, perhaps suggesting the crime was motivated by the sectarian strife in the Balkan country, which has been ravaged by religious wars dating back centuries after the Muslim Ottoman Empire took over large swaths of the Christian Kingdom of Bosnia in the 15th century. However, there have also been suggestions that Olivier had a “fascination with death” and wanted to “be known as a serial killer”.

The government was quick to denounce the killing, with President Emmanuel Macron saying that “racism and hatred based on religion can have no place in France. Freedom of worship cannot be violated,” while offering his support to “fellow Muslim citizens”. Additionally, Prime Minsiter François Bayrou decried the “Islamophobic atrocity” and announced additional security for mosques throughout the country.

Nevertheless, the left was quick to seize on the death of a Muslim man and immediately organised a protest in Paris against “Islamophobia”. Far-left former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon appeared at the rally on Sunday and was filmed having a tearful exchange with a Muslim woman.

Other leftists took aim at the government, specifically the anti-mass migration Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. French Communist Party Fabien Roussel implied Retailleau — without specifically naming him — was among those with “blood on their hands”.

Meanwhile, Manuel Bompard, the national coordinator for Mélenchon’s radical La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party, accused the interior minister of fueling a “form of obsession against Muslims” in France, pointing to Retailleau’s criticism of the Islamic practice of veiling women, which France banned in 2011 in public spaces.

During the protest, Ritchy Thibault, the parliamentary attaché to LFI MP Ersilia Soudais, suggested forming vigilante groups to protect the Muslim community, proclaiming, “We must defend ourselves with our own means; we must set up popular self-defence brigades throughout the country.” The far-left Mélenchonist party has denied that this is official party policy.

Prominent essayist and political commentator Céline Pina criticised the left for using the tragic killing for political gain, noting that “when a priest or faithful are shot dead in a church or a Jew is murdered, the left does not mobilise.”

“The victim’s community belonging matters more than the crime they suffer. The left has its causes, they are identity-based, it has chosen to erase the border between good and evil to be content with a positioning between what makes it gain electoral market share and what makes it lose it,” she said.

Pina added that the left is “very quick to point out culprits, to demonise them and then to justify the resulting logic of bloodthirsty purification. The left was fascinated by Stalin and justified the mass massacres. Today, she sees in Hamas a form of legitimate resistance. The left has become as morbid as the Islamists it has allied itself with.”

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