A Muslim man in France who was indicted for manslaughter for shaking his 5-month-old daughter to death blamed fasting during Ramadan for putting him “on edge”.
The 42-year-old man, who is said to have stayed at a hotel with his child while his wife went to work every day as the couple were still looking for a home, was indicted in a Versailles court this week for manslaughter after admitting to shaking the young child to death on May 28th, Le Parisien reports.
The man, who lives in the commune of Mantes-la-Jolie, is said to have reacted to the young child crying by shaking her and then throwing her on the hotel bed. The child once more began to cry and the Muslim man shook her again and threw her onto the bed but this time the child bounced off onto the floor headfirst and vomited.
Soon after, the 42-year-old took the child to a nearby hospital where she was diagnosed with a skull fracture and injuries commonly found in babies that have been shaken.
Following the death of the child, the man was taken into police custody where he admitted to the entire incident, blaming fasting due to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
“I was doing Ramadan and without eating, my nerves were on edge,” he said.
Violence during Ramadan in Europe and elsewhere is not uncommon, with reported cases occurring every year. Last year there were 1,627 murders and 1,824 injuries during Ramadan, making it one of the deadliest Ramadan months in modern history.
In France, one incident of Ramadan violence made headlines in 2016 when a pair of Muslims brutally attacked a waitress in Nice for serving alcohol. The waitress was left with a large facial haematoma following the attack.