France Church Attack

  • An attacker armed with a knife killed three people inside a church on october 29 in the southern French city of Nice.
  • It Prompted the government to raise its security alert status to the maximum level hours before a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
HISTORICAL CONNECTION 
  • The attack took place near the Notre Dame church.
  • The Notre Dame Basilica is less than a kilometer from the site in 2016 where another attacker plowed a truck into a Bastille Day crowd, killing dozens of people.
  • It was the third attack in two months in France that authorities have attributed to Muslim extremists, including the beheading of a teacher.
  • It comes during a growing furor over caricatures of the Prophet that were republished in recent months by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
  • It renewed the vociferous debate in France and the Muslim world over the depictions that Muslims consider offensive but are protected by French free speech laws.

FRANCE & ISLAM

  • France has a long and complex relationship with Islam, and its 5 million Muslim citizens (just under 9% of its population).
  • The Muslim citizens live in poorer areas and are often marginalized in politics and media.
  • The recent attacks are reminders of the tensions in France’s secular society, which frequently extols the values of free speech and freedom to practice religion. 
FRENCH DEFINITION OF SECULARISM
  • French secularism, or laicite, sees no place for religion in the public sphere. 
  • In this way, it is the opposite of how India has practised its secularism.
  • Over the years, laicite has been in confrontation with the religious practices of many immigrant groups in France, including the Sikhs.
  • But the biggest confrontations have been to do with its Muslim citizens.

SOURCE: IE

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