Muslim worshipers arrived at the al-Wahda prayer room and the Al-Baraka Mosque on the Rue de Suisse in Nice's city center, locked up their bikes and took off their sandals and socks on green mats laid outside the entrance. The sound of Arabic prayer spilled out from both.
Both Al-Wahda and Al-Baraka Mosque are refusing the entry of non-Muslims for the prayer services. But once the prayer was over, Al-Wahda's imama, Sheikh Abdulmonam, gave a Newsweek reporter permission to enter the house of worship to talk about Mohammed Bouhlel.
Mohammed Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, was responsible for mowing down hundreds of locals and foreigners celebrating Bastille Day on Promenade de Anglais on Thursday night, killing at least 84 people. He was later claimed by Islamic State militant group (ISIS) as one of their own.
After the tragedy, Muslim communities across France are once again coming to terms with mass killing carried out in their name.
The 46-year-old Abdulmonam denied the fact that what Bouhlel did was an act of a Muslim. Bouhlel does not represent the community in any way at all. As a matter of fact, he shouldn't be termed as Muslim at all.
Guillaume Gourves, 35, a robed French Muslim convert and worshiper at the Al-Baraka mosque, says that Bouhlel “is going straight to hell” for carrying out such a heinous act, rejecting the notion that ISIS represents Islam and Muslims. According to him, these terrorists are just representing themselves and recklessly using the name of Islam to kill people.
France has already suffered through three major attacks all committed by ISIS since January 2015. The country's Muslim community is steeling itself for a backlash, expecting that when things such this one happens in France, they always become the victim. "This attack has nothing to do with Islam."
The Donald Trump-like Front National leader Marine Le Pen is currently ahead of the French presidential elections next April and it has the Muslim community worried, even having Le Pen compared to Hitler.
Bouhlel’s family say the delivery driver suffered from depression, saw a psychiatrist for years and often had violent episodes. But the French government has publicly linked Bouhlel with radical Islamism.
Source: Newsweek
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