Muslims and community leaders in France condemned the killing of a teacher in a Paris suburb, calling for not associating Islam with such heinous acts.
On Friday afternoon, a history teacher was stabbed and killed in a Paris suburb. He had reportedly shown his pupils cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in a class on freedom of expression.
"Nothing justifies killing an innocent person for his convictions. Islam calls for tolerance and to accept the others as they are," Ibrahim, a worker at a pharmaceutical company, told Xinhua on Saturday.
"True Muslims are not extremists. Wearing djellaba (long dress) or veil, being bearded don't mean being terrorists. Terrorists are acting for things which have no relation with Islam," he said.
The 51-year-old practising Muslim added he planned to join the gathering to pay tribute to the killed teacher on Sunday afternoon to denounce terrorism and send a message of peace.
Hafiz Chems-eddine, the rector of Grand Paris mosque, said he was "horrified" by the crime.
"All the more horrified as this attack is being carried out in the name of my religion, Islam. That's enough," he tweeted.
Tareq Oubrou, imam of a Bordeaux mosque, said he was "downcast because it is an unspeakable act which is perpetrated in the name of a religion which has nothing to do with an ignoble act."
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday evening condemned the "Islamic terrorist attack," calling on the French to stand together while pledging quick and firm action by the government to combat terrorism.
Last month, a man stabbed two people outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris after it republished the controversial caricatures mocking Prophet Muhammad to emphasize the right to free speech.
The magazine was the target of a mass shooting in 2015 which left 11 dead.
