The bishop of Nice, André Marceau.

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SYSPEO / SIPA

Mgr André Marceau, bishop of Nice, a city bereaved by a jihadist attack on Thursday, said "not to be Charlie" in an interview published on Saturday by the daily

Nice-Matin

, while defending the freedom of expression that he considers "sacred in France ".

“No, I'm not Charlie, I'm André Marceau!

Let us be ourselves with our convictions.

These cartoons are not my problem.

Of course, freedom of expression is sacred in France, but let everyone take responsibility.

There are identities that cannot be lightly flouted, ”explains the bishop.

“In Islamic circles, we must take measures, make statements in order to open the faithful to realities other than those which go as far as extremism.

Muslims must say very loudly that they do not carry this violence, ”nevertheless believes Mgr Marceau.

On Thursday, three worshipers died in a knife attack in the Notre-Dame de l'Assomption basilica, in the heart of Nice.

The precise motives of the alleged perpetrator, a 21-year-old Tunisian man, seriously injured by the municipal police while threatening the agents by shouting “Allah Akbar”, remain unknown.

Cartoons in the sights of the Muslim world

Two weeks after the assassination of teacher Samuel Paty, beheaded for showing his students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad as part of a course on freedom of expression, tension is great between France and part of the muslim world.

On Friday tens of thousands of people once again demonstrated in several Muslim and Arab countries against France over the cartoons of Mohammed.

After the fatal attack in the basilica, for the bishop of Nice "we must say that we are not enslaved".

“We must be able to give the signal to others that we remain standing!

Our freedom of expression is precisely our freedom to open our churches where we proclaim that our faith is a message of love ”, he insists.

Toulouse

"We do not laugh at religions with impunity", thinks the Archbishop of Toulouse, Robert Le Gall

Society

A third man in police custody after the Nice attack

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