Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, deplored Thursday’s deadly stabbings in the French city of Nice, saying that the perpetrators “do not get to define Muslims” and are unrepresentative of Islam.
Twenty-one-year-old Brahim Aouissaoui is suspected to have carried out the stabbings outside a church, in what French anti-terror prosecutors labelled an “Islamo-fascist attack” that has been condemned widely in the Muslim world and beyond.
Trudeau told reporters during a news conference after an e-meeting with EU leaders that the attack was “heinous,” “criminal,” “unjustifiable,” and an insult to Canadian values.
“The criminals, the terrorists, the cold-blooded murderers who perpetrated these attacks do not represent Islam,” he added, extending condolences to the victims and their loved ones.
“They do not get to define Muslims in France, in Canada or anywhere around the world,” Trudeau stressed.
Aouissaoui arrived in France in early October, French sources said.
During the knife attack, the suspect reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest), killing a woman and a man. Another woman was seriously injured and died in a nearby bar where she had taken refuge. One of the victims’ throat was slit.
The attack in Nice comes amid widespread anger in Muslim communities at comments by France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who vigorously defended the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on free speech grounds.
