Paris attacks have nothing to do with Islam: Hollande
French President Francois Hollande has rejected any links between the perpetrators of the recent terror attacks around the capital Paris with Islam.
In a televised address on Friday, the French leader called for vigilance and unity in the face of the shocking acts of violence in the European country and said those behind the Paris assaults were “fanatics who have nothing to do with Islam.”
“France is not finished with being a target of threats. Therefore, I want to urge you to be vigilant, to be united and to be mobilized,” he added.
Hollande further urged all French people to take part in a unity rally planned for Sunday to condemn the fatal incidents.
This is while several European heads of state, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron have declared their intention to participate in what is expected to be a massive march.
The recent deadly assaults have drawn condemnation from Muslims in France and the entire world.
On Friday, two brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi, suspected of slaughtering 12 people two days earlier at the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly, were killed after being cornered at a printing workshop with a hostage in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris.
On the same day, police ended a second hostage-taking in a supermarket in the eastern Porte de Vincennes area of Paris, killing one armed hostage-taker, Amedy Coulibaly, who was a suspect in killing a policewoman in southern Paris a day earlier. Officials say four hostages were also killed during the raid.
The ISIL Takfiri group, fighting the Iraqi and Syrian government forces, has claimed responsibility for the attacks, threatening to target the United States and Britain next.France is among the European countries that have thrown their weight behind militant groups in Syria.
French police and intelligence services have been facing mounting criticism over their lack of intervention before the attack on Charlie Hebdo newspaper headquarters.