Alwaght- ISIS terrorist group claimed responsibility for the truck attack on the French city of Nice amid reports that the terrorist involved was not Muslim.
"The person who carried out the operation in Nice, France, to run down people was one of the soldiers of ISIS," the news agency Amaq, which is affiliated to ISIS, said via its Telegram account.
"He carried out the operation in response to calls to target nationals of states that are part of the coalition fighting ISIS," the statement said.
The 31-year old Mohamed Laouaiej Bouhlel, a French-Tunisian, was the driver of the truck drove at a Bastille day crowd on the waterfront of the French Riviera city on Thursday night killing at least 84 people and injuring over 200 with 50 among them in critical condition.
ISIS has boasted of carrying out the attack while the French authorities say they have no evidence to link the terrorists with religious extremist groups nor was he a religious extremist.
Terrorist attacker in Nice was not Muslims, ate Pork
Former neighbours and relatives say Bouhlel as distant and uninterested in Islam.
Meanwhile, according to stunning revelations made Walid Hamou, the cousin of Bouhlel’s wife Hajer Khalfallah, the attacker was fundamentally not a Muslim. Hamou says that Bouhlel blatantly flouted the basic tenets of Islam. “He never visited the mosque for prayers. Neither did he fast during Ramadan. He ate pork and used to drink alcohol, the two things which are strictly prohibited in Islam.”
Hamou further claims that Bouhlel used to severely thrash his wife Khalfallah. “He was not a Muslim, he was a s___. He beat his wife, my cousin, he was a nasty piece of work,” he added.
Lahouaiej-Bouhlel described his son as "always alone, always depressed" and not wanting to talk. The father also insisted that his son "had no links to religion". "He didn't pray, he didn't fast, he drank alcohol and even used drugs."
A former neighbor, who only gave his first name, Mansour, said Bouhlel did not go to the mosque and did not pray. "He is from a large, normal family, not extremist at all," he said. "They're like the rest of us."
Bouhlel was delivery driver, had a police record for violence, theft and threatening behavior over the past six years. He was given a six-month suspended prison sentence in March after hitting a driver with a baseball bat in a road rage attack. He was not placed on probation or kept under supervision after the incident, judicial sources said.
President Hollande makes unsubstantiated claims
French president Francois Hollande and Paris Prosecutor have been quick to jump into conclusions that Bouhlel's terrorism is linked to Islam without any evidence while ignoring his family members and neighbors who viewed him as an outlaw devoid of any Islamic characteristic.
This is not the first time for ISIS Takfiri terrorist group to claim responsibility for a crime carried out by someone assumed to be a Muslim but in fact acts in total contravention of Islamic tenets. In the case of the June attack in the US city of Orlando, the man who killed 49 people at a gay club in Orlando was a himself closet homosexual who used gay dating apps and frequented gay bars, according to friends and locals in the city.
Meanwhile, during a discussion on Friday about the terrorist attack in Nice, a guest on MSNBC network confirmed that some of the terrorist attacks are actually not related to ISIS.
Former United States Intelligence Officer Malcom Nance pointed out that both the attack in Orlando, Florida and the attack in San Bernardino, California were not necessarily acts of ISIS terror. He referred to instances of personal turmoil in the attackers’ lives as evidence that they were driven by other motives.
Christianity not blamed of terror acts by Christians
During the recent past there have been terrorist acts carried out by Christians or non-Muslims. In March 2015, co-pilot Andreas Lubitz crashed an A320 Airbus into the French Alps killing all 150 people on board, including school children. Despite the fact that he had a Christian background French prosecutors did not brand his act, terrorism. It would have definitely been different if the co-pilot was for instance, Bin Omar, son of Egyptian immigrants. In 2011 Anders Breivik a Norwegian far-right terrorist shot dead 69 participants of a Workers' Youth League (AUF) summer camp on the island of Utoya. In August 2012, he was convicted of mass murder, causing a fatal explosion, and terrorism. Breivik also had a Christian background but his acts were not linked to Christianity but rather to his state of mind and personal ideologies.
On the contrary when a terrorist act is carried out by anyone with a Muslim name, Western media outlets are quick to jump into conclusions and associating the terrorist act with Islam in what is clearly a deliberate move to spread Islamophobia.
