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Paris France – People across France woke up on Friday to two new realities: the start of a new month-long national lockdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus and a “terror” alert raised to its highest level.
On Thursday morning, security fears increased when three people were killed at the Notre-Dame Basilica in the southern city of Nice, in what French President Macron called an “Islamic terror attack.”
People across the country were in shock as they cried.
“It is a pain that only those who have suffered this terrorism can feel,” Roseline Hamel told French radio France Info.
In 2016, Hamel’s brother, Father Jacques Hamel, was beheaded by two attackers while celebrating mass at his church in Normandy.
Hamel said he had a hard time understanding why the attacker behind Thursday’s violence, a 21-year-old Tunisian citizen, set his target “on people who pray, who do no harm, are serene in peace in this church.”
The victims included Vincent Loques, 55, a father of two daughters who was the church’s sacristan, in charge of its sacred objects, according to local broadcaster France-Bleu.
A 60-year-old woman who, like Loques, died on the spot, has not been identified.
Another was a 44-year-old mother of three from Brazil, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. French media said her name was Simone. He had studied cooking in Nice and helped poor communities in the area. Simone had managed to get out of the church to a nearby cafe, but later died from her injuries, Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi told reporters at the scene.
“Tell my children that I love them,” Simone is said to have said, before she died.
Simone Barreto Silva, named by French media as one of the victims of a deadly knife attack at the Notre Dame church in Nice, is seen in this brochure image, distributed by Reuters on October 30, 2020. [Simone Barreto Silva/Handout via Reuters]
Thursday’s attack reopened old wounds for the people of Nice.
In July 2016, a man rammed a truck into a crowd of people lined up on the city’s main promenade for Bastille Day celebrations, killing 86 and wounding 458 others.
Father Cyril Geley, Vicar General of the Diocese of Nice, told Le Monde: “A church is a place of peace where violence is not the order of the day.
“Our religious buildings are no longer places of refuge, they are objective … we are all stunned, the words seem very weak compared to what we are experiencing.”
Speaking in front of the church on Thursday, a grim Macron said he was deploying between 3,000 and 7,000 troops to protect the country’s places of worship and urged people of all faiths to “unite” and “not give in to the spirit of division.” .
But many, particularly on France’s political right, said that was not enough.
“We can no longer afford to simply say ‘unity’,” said Estrosi, a former MP for The Republicans, a right-wing party.
“We need acts,” he said, adding that he wanted to amend France’s constitution to fight “jihadists.”
Eric Ciotti, deputy of Los Republicanos, called for a “French-style Guantanamo” to lock up the alleged fighters.
A nun prays in front of candles and flowers left in tribute to the victims of the deadly knife attack at the Notre Dame Basilica in Nice, France, October 30, 2020 [Eric Gaillard/Reuters]
The far right was also quick to politicize the event.
“Islamism is an ideology that makes war on us,” Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally, told radio RMC. “All those, associations, structures, men, women, who support this ideology, who spread it: we must put them out of danger.”
On Thursday night, protesters linked to the far-right group Generation Identity took to the streets of Nice shouting “Islam, get out of Europe.”
The rally raised concerns about a new set of local culture wars.
“[Generation Identity] he is trying to gain followers from the emotion that spreads among the population, “Rokhaya Diallo, a French journalist, writer and filmmaker, told Al Jazeera.
“All separatisms must be condemned,” Olivier Faure, head of the Socialist Party (SP) of France, wrote on Twitter, linking to a video of the far-right group’s march. “They provoke each other, each one becomes fuel for the other.”
Shortly after Thursday’s attack in Nice, police shot and killed a man after he threatened a North African merchant. Police told Al Jazeera that they were investigating media reports that suggested the attacker was a member of Generation Identity.
People walk towards security forces at the scene of an incident near the former offices of French magazine Charlie Hebdo, in Paris, France, on September 25, 2020. [Charles Platiau/Reuters]
The violence in Nice was the third in a series of recent attacks that rocked France over the past month.
Two weeks ago, 47-year-old teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded in broad daylight after showing students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a civics lesson on freedom of expression.
Last month, two people were stabbed outside the former offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo after the magazine republished similar cartoons of the prophet, deemed offensive to many Muslims.
While Muslims have condemned these attacks, they fear being an unjust target of a crackdown on Muslim organizations and places of worship and are upset by renewed public support for the right to show the cartoons, which often suggest that Islam and the ” terrorism “are linked.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, Macron said Islam was in “crisis” globally as he outlined plans for a law designed to prevent what he called “Islamist separatism.”
The proposed law has been met with harsh criticism from Muslims in France and the rest of the world.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan, who often clashes with his French counterpart, recently said that Macron needed “mind checks” on his attitude towards Muslims and Islam.
Macron’s comments and his support for the right to show the cartoons have led to a street protest movement against France in many Muslim countries, along with calls for a boycott of French products.
As those protests continued on Friday, Macron was holding an emergency meeting with high-ranking ministers on Friday to discuss new security measures.
In Nice, a makeshift memorial of flowers and candles was installed outside the basilica to honor the three victims.
One of the bouquets says: “Nice is still standing. Rest in peace.”
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