France witnessed two brutal attacks over the weekend carried out in the name of Islam.
The most recent attack, which occurred on Sunday, saw thirteen civilians injured when a French Jihadist ran over pedestrians with his vehicle while yelling, “Allahu Akbar.”
Information has surfaced that one of his chief motivations was to mimic similar hit-and-run tactics used by Palestinians to kill innocent Jews in Israel. The jihadist shouted, “This is in the name of the children of Palestine,” as he ran-over bystanders, according to a French prosecutor.
Israel has seen multiple hit-and-run vehicular jihad attacks in recent months, which have resulted in the deaths of many innocents, including a baby.
Prosecutor Marie-Christine Tarrare told reporters on Monday, “This is absolutely not an act of terrorism,” seemingly disregarding the man’s jihadist statements. His motives were “relatively vague and unclear,” she added.
An official seconded the prosecutor’s diagnosis, telling AFP: “The man, born in 1974, is apparently imbalanced and had been in a psychiatric hospital…. for now his motives are unclear.”
On Saturday, a knife-wielding attacker attempted to carry out jihad on two French police officers while reciting the Islamic war cry “Allahu Akbar!” Bertrand Nzohabonayo, a French convert to Islam, was finally neutralized by police, but not before he was able to use his knife to cause serious injuries to two French officers. The Burundi-born man had changed his name to Bilal once he finished his conversion to Islam. On Thursday, he posted the flag of the Islamic State terror group to his Facebook page. Although Nzohabonayo had a relatively minimal criminal record, his brother, who had reportedly considered leaving for the jihad in Syria, was recently placed on a terror watch list.
“The investigation is leading towards an attack… motivated by radical Islamist motives,” said one official.
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