Man Shouted “Allahu Akbar" in the Cathedral of Cambrai

Case information
Incident date
Country
France
Place
Cambrai
Categories
  • Social Hostility / Intolerance
Attack Against
  • Faith
Perpetrator / Motive Indicators
  • Islamist
  • Private
Hate Crime & Violent Incidents
  • Threats
  • Insult or Incitement
Place of Incident
  • Church
Bias Indicators
  • Comments/Written Statements/Gestures/Graffiti
  • Significance of Property/Structure/Location to religious community
Reported to Police
  • Unknown
Response of Local Authorities
  • Unknown
Image credit: Interior of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Grâce de Cambrai by Velvet, CC BY-SA 4 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)

Shortly before the Palm Sunday Mass in the cathedral Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a unidentified man shouted “Allahu Akbar” into the microphone. When approached by a parishioner, he ran away. Notably, the incident happened two days after an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in southern France.

According to reports, the man was "visibly psychologically fragile" and looked "more marginal than dangerous."

Sources