Police arrested an intoxicated man in Montpellier after he made death threats aboard a tram, telling passengers that in 2021, Islam would kill them all.
The incident occurred at around 5:30 pm on Friday, November 20th, aboard a line two tram. The 33-year-old man, who was carrying a copy of the Quran, threatened people around him.
“I’m going to kill you, slaughter you, you son of a bitch. You’re going to see in 2021, Islam, we’re going to kill you all,” the suspect said, according to witnesses.
Several passengers then called the police, and two travellers later forced him off the tram near the Place de la Comédie in central Montpellier, Midi Libre reports.
Officers were soon on the scene and took the 33-year-old into custody. As well as the copy of the Quran, they found on the suspect a Swiss army knife, a screwdriver, and a prayer mat.
While in custody, he denied promoting terrorism and said he has only been practising Islam for the past year. His ex-wife told investigators that the man had turned to drugs and alcohol following the death of a relative, but had never been violent in the past.
The incident comes as Islamist threats have heightened in the wake of the country’s two recent terrorist attacks.
The first in Yvelines saw the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty by a teen Chechen refugee after he showed his class copies of the Mohammed cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo. The second occurred in Nice when a radical Islamic migrant from Tunisia killed three in a church.
Since the murder of Paty, the French government has cracked down on Islamist groups, and in response received strong condemnation from the Muslim world, including calls to boycott French products.
As part of his proposal to tackle political Islam, President Macron gave the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) two weeks to sign a “Republican values charter” and to promise to end all practice of Islamism.