Kremlin, after French attacks, says wrong to kill but wrong to insult religion too

The Kremlin, commenting on current beheading incidents in France, mentioned on Thursday it was unacceptable to kill individuals, but in addition unsuitable to insult the emotions of spiritual believers.

The Kremlin was commenting after a knife-wielding attacker shouting “Allahu Akbar” beheaded a lady and killed two different individuals in a suspected terrorist assault at a church within the French metropolis of Nice.

A knife-wielding attacker shouting “Allahu Akbar” beheaded a lady and killed two different individuals in a suspected terrorist incident at a church within the French metropolis of Nice on Thursday, police and officers mentioned.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has prolonged his condolences to French President Emmanuel Macron and households of the victims of the assault in Nice. In a telegram quoted by the Kremlin, Putin known as the assault “a cynical and a cruel crime inside a church” and mentioned that “the notions of human morals are absolutely alien to terrorists.”

On Thursday, a number of dozen individuals gathered in entrance of the French embassy in Moscow, denouncing the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad within the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Asked by reporters whether or not a newspaper like Charlie Hebdo might exist in Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned that it was unimaginable, mentioning that round 20 million Muslims dwell in Russia and the nation has laws that outlaws insulting spiritual beliefs. At the identical time Peskov known as the killings in Nice “an absolutely horrifying tragedy.”

Nice’s mayor, Christian Estrosi, who described the assault as terrorism, mentioned on Twitter it had occurred in or close to Notre Dame church, the biggest within the metropolis.

Estrosi mentioned the attacker had repeatedly shouted the phrase “Allahu Akbar”, or God is best, even after he had been detained by police.

One of the individuals killed contained in the church was believed to be the church warden, Estrosi mentioned, including {that a} girl had tried to flee from contained in the church and had fled right into a bar reverse the 19th century neo-Gothic constructing.

​ “The suspected knife attacker was shot by police while being detained, he is on his way to hospital, he is alive,” Estrosi instructed reporters.

“Enough is enough,” Estrosi mentioned. “It’s time now for France to exonerate itself from the laws of peace in order to definitively wipe out Islamo-fascism from our territory.”

Reuters journalists on the scene mentioned police armed with computerized weapons had put up a safety cordon across the church, which is on Nice’s Jean Medecin avenue, town’s principal buying thoroughfare. Ambulances and fireplace service autos had been additionally on the scene.

French President Emmanuel Macron is because of go to Nice, Estrosi mentioned.

In Paris, lawmakers within the National Assembly noticed a minute’s silence in solidarity with the victims.

Police mentioned three individuals had been confirmed to have died within the assault and several other had been injured. The French anti-terrorist prosecutor’s division mentioned it had been requested to analyze.

A police supply mentioned a lady was decapitated. French politician Marine Le Pen additionally spoke of a decapitation having occurred within the assault.

A consultant of the French Council for the Muslim Faith strongly condemned the assault. “As a sign of mourning and solidarity with the victims and their loved ones, I call on all Muslims in France to cancel all the celebrations of the holiday of Mawlid.”.

The vacation is the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad, which is being celebrated Thursday.

Estrosi mentioned the victims had been killed in a “horrible way”.

“The methods match, without doubt, those used against the brave teacher in Conflans Sainte Honorine, Samuel Paty,” he mentioned, referring to a French trainer beheaded earlier this month in an assault in a suburb of Paris.

The assault comes whereas France remains to be reeling from the beheading earlier this month of center college trainer Paty by a person of Chechen origin.

The attacker had mentioned he wished to punish Paty for displaying pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics lesson.

It was not instantly clear if Thursday’s assault was related to the cartoons, which Muslims contemplate to be blasphemous.

Since Paty’s killing, French officers – backed by many atypical residents – have reasserted the best to show the cartoons, and the photographs have been broadly displayed at marches in solidarity with the killed trainer.

That has prompted an outpouring of anger in components of the Muslim world, with some governments accusing Macron of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda.

In a touch upon current beheadings in France, the Kremlin mentioned on Thursday it was unacceptable to kill individuals, but in addition unsuitable to insult the emotions of spiritual believers.