This attack is likely a response to the recent beheading of a teacher in France who showed his class a cartoon of Islam’s prophet Muhammad, and the subsequent crackdown on Islamist groups by French authorities. Because France is historically Christian, what is perceived as an attack on Islam is followed by an attack on Christians and Christianity; hence this knife attack outside a church. As we have seen here at ChristianPersecution.com in regard to numerous blasphemy cases in Pakistan, Christians in majority-Muslim countries are expected to observe the restrictions of Islamic blasphemy laws, and have often been arrested, attacked, and even killed if they do not. This expectation is therefore the occasion for a great deal of persecution of Christians. This attack in France represents an attempt to transport that sensibility to the West.
“France knife attack: Man shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ beheads woman, kills 2 others outside church in Nice,” Times Now News, October 29, 2020:
Nice: At least three persons were killed in a knife attack on Thursday outside a church in the southern French city of Nice. Officials said a man wielding a knife slit the throat of one person and killed two others. Several other people were also injured in the attack.
A police source was also quoted by Reuters as saying that a woman was feared to have been decapitated in the knife attack. French far-right politician Marine Le Pen told reporters at the French Parliament in Paris that a “decapitation” had occurred in the attack.
Police said the suspected attacker was swiftly detained following the incident in the morning. French anti-terror prosecutors have opened an inquiry into the incident.
“The situation is now under control,” police spokeswoman Florence Gavello said.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin convened a crisis meeting after the attack.
The Mayor of Nice described the attack as an act of “terrorism”. According to Mayor Christian Estrosi, the attack took place in or near the city’s Notre Dame church and one of those killed was the caretaker at the basilica.
A police source was reported as saying that while two victims died at the Basilica of Notre Dame, a third succumbed to injuries after seeking refuge in a nearby bar.
The Mayor told reporters that the suspect had “repeated endlessly ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is greatest) when he was being treated at the scene” after being injured during his arrest….
