00:00Here in France, the other story that we've been following for you has been the fact that there is suspect in the brutal stabbing death over the weekend of a Malian praying in a mosque in the southwest of the country has turned up in Italy, turning himself in to police in a town northwest of Florence.
00:21There was a rally on Sunday night against Islamophobia here in the French capital. The 21-year-old denies an anti-Islam motive. Emerald Maxwell has more.
01:10He was planning on doing it again. Now that he's caught, at least we know he can't.
01:16Olivier is suspected of getting help for his 700-kilometre journey from southern France to Pistoia, north of Florence, where he handed himself in, accompanied by a close relative and a lawyer.
01:28For the mosque's faithful, many questions remain.
01:32He contacted people on the phone while he was here. He sent the video to someone who shared it.
01:38So we hope there aren't other crazy people with him who want to do the same thing.
01:44Born in Lyon to a Bosnian family, Olivier was unemployed and unknown to the police.
01:50For now, he's primarily suspected of having an Islamophobic motive.
01:54But the prosecutor said they weren't ruling out others, too.
01:58He had a fascination with death and a desire to be considered a serial killer.
02:03And he expressed the desire to kill more people.
02:05A European arrest warrant will be issued for the suspect's transfer across the border to France.
02:11The killing prompted President Emmanuel Macron to say there was no place for religious hate in French society.
02:17But the anti-terror prosecutor's office has not taken up the case.
02:22And the authorities have been accused of a double standard in their reaction.
02:25Well, for more, let's cross to Lille in northern France.
02:28Olivier Esteve is Professor of British Studies and Political Science at the University of Lille.
02:33Thank you for speaking with us here on France 24.
02:36Hello.
02:37First off, this story has shaken France because we've had this spectacular stabbing, this man who's on the run and who now denies that he had an anti-Islam motive.
02:57Yet, at the same time, why film the murder and then post it to social media?
03:07Well, it's very, very early to jump to any conclusion.
03:11But what is clear is that from the few colleagues like myself or other colleagues that study Islamophobia in France and elsewhere,
03:19there are obviously obvious parallels to be made with, you know, the lethal attack that was carried out against the Christchurch mosque in New Zealand,
03:28despite the fact that the number of casualties in the New Zealand case was much larger.
03:34But, yeah, there is no denying that, although we like to deny the very existence of Islamophobia as a concept in France,
03:41that, you know, this attack was carried out for Islamophobic reasons.
03:47Carried out for Islamophobic reasons.
03:50What do you make of the political reactions?
03:52We've had the government promising to step up security around mosques.
03:57And we've had the interior minister, who's, touts himself as a law and order man,
04:04who is, has come out with a denunciation of what happened.
04:11I think part of the project that is carried out, promoted by the reactionary right of which Bruno Routaio belongs,
04:21is very much Islamophobic itself.
04:24So when I heard in a few minutes ago the phrase double standards was used,
04:29it's very clear for the large number of Muslims in France, I'm not part of them,
04:34that indeed there are double standards whenever a synagogue is assaulted, and rightly so,
04:41you have ministers that go to the synagogue on the very same day as the synagogue is actually assaulted.
04:48Whenever a mosque is assaulted, and there was a very high-profile case back in 2019 in the southern town of Bayonne,
04:56no minister turns up.
04:57And this is exactly what happened over the weekend, and this is exactly what shocked a large number of French people,
05:06be they Muslim or not.
05:08Yeah, the interior minister was 10 kilometers from the scene of the stabbing.
05:12He did not attend a rally that took place.
05:16I think a certain number of, you know, part of his electorate really are people that are reactionary,
05:24you know, right-wing, more or less elderly folks that, you know, have, let's say,
05:30a streak of Islamophobia about them.
05:32So they would, you know, he does, I mean, he's on an electoral campaign, you know,
05:37he's on the campaign trail.
05:39He wants to be the leader of the mainstream, sorry, the main right-wing party,
05:44which is not Rassemblement National.
05:45Therefore, he needs to send...
05:47You mean the Republican, right?
05:49He's running for...
05:50Exactly, yeah, he's running for this part, for the leadership of this party,
05:55and then therefore he probably thinks that strategically it would be shooting himself in the foot
06:00if he actually did go himself and, you know, visit the mosque or, you know,
06:07you know, just, you know, just physically go to the place itself.
06:12So unlike what has been happening many times with synagogues, I mean, in any liberal democracy,
06:19you know, you need to be against all forms of racism, be it anti-Semitism or indeed Islamophobia.
06:30And there was a rally that took place here in the French capital on Sunday night.
06:34A lot of the anger directed towards right-wing media that they say are fueling hate.
06:44Yeah, so there's no denying that this is so.
06:47I think another major point, and I don't think it's been raised that much,
