Terror Attack in France as Caricature Controversy Boils

At least three people were killed – one of them decapitated – near a church in Nice, France, on Thursday in what appears to be a murderous response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s vow to crack down on extremist Islamists in his country. The ongoing verbal jousting between Macron and leaders of the Muslim world, including the leaders of Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Egypt began after last week’s decapitation of a French teacher who displayed a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad during his class on freedom of speech. Nice authorities said a suspect in the murder was in custody, and continued to shout “Allahu akbar” ( “God is the greatest,” in Arabic) after his arrest. On Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani joined the fray, telling his people that “Westerners must understand … insulting the Prophet is insulting all Muslims. Insulting the Prophet is insulting all prophets, human values, and amounts to undermining ethics.” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Wednesday also chimed in, saying, “If some have the freedom to express what is in their thoughts, I imagine that this stops when it comes to offending the feelings of more than 1.5 billion people.”