French PM vows to fight radical Islam in tribute to attack victims

Reuters , Saturday 7 Nov 2020

"We know the enemy. Not only has it been identified, but it has a name, it is radical Islam, a political ideology that disfigures the Muslim religion," Castex said in a speech during a ceremony

French Prime Minister Jean Castex awards a local police officer during a ceremony to pay tribute to the victims of a deadly knife attack at Notre Dame basilica on October 29, 2020 in Nice, France November 7, 2020. REUTERS

French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Saturday the government would keep "fighting relentlessly" against radical Islam as he paid tribute to the three victims of a knife attack in the southern city of Nice last month.

A Tunisian man shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in the coastal city on Oct. 29 before being shot and taken away by police.

"We know the enemy. Not only has it been identified, but it has a name, it is radical Islam, a political ideology that disfigures the Muslim religion," Castex said in a speech during the ceremony.

"(It is) an enemy that the government is fighting relentlessly by providing the necessary resources and mobilising all of its forces everyday," he added.

The Nice attack followed the beheading of a schoolteacher in a suburb of Paris on Oct. 16 by a Chechen-born man who was apparently incensed by the teacher showing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad in class.

The attack in Nice took place amid worldwide Muslim anger over France's defence of the right to publish cartoons depicting the prophet.

A 21-year-old man recently arrived from Tunisia, suspected of being the Nice attacker, is still in a critical condition after being shot by municipal police and was transferred to a Paris hospital on Friday.