France — An elderly man was stabbed Friday near his house in Strasbourg. The victim was wearing a Kippa skullcap when he was attacked. His aggressor shout “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest). The police arrested the attacker and found out the man has a psychiatric history. The victim is stable in a hospital.
On Friday at about 11:45 a.m. the victim known as Mr. Levy was leaving his home in the middle of the Jewish quarter in Strasbourg when he was attacked in the abdomen with a knife by another man. Witnesses have said that the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar” but the allegations were not independently confirmed.
The victim was wearing distinctive Jewish ornaments, but Alexandra Gonzalez, a crime journalist for French digital TV channel BFMTV, quoted a source close to the investigation that said no anti-Semitic motive was not yet established. According to Mirror UK, a witness restrained the suspect before the police arrived on the scene.
It is not believed that the incident was part of a terrorist attack since the man put into custody has a history of mental illness. The suspect is known for committing similar offenses. In 2010 he had attacked a local member of the Jewish community.
The local prosecutor’s office confirmed the arrest of the attacker and stated that an investigation was in progress.
The victim, Rabbi Mendel Samama, and Strasbourg Jewish community
After being stabbed, the victim took shelter in a meat restaurant and managed to remove the knife before customers started helping him, said Rabbi Mendel Samama to the AFP newswire.
Samama is a Rabbi based in Strasbourg, and he posted on Twitter he visited Mr. Levy at the hospital and described his condition as stable. Samama said Levy was aware that he was a miracle because the knife in his abdominal region failed to touch any vital organ.
According to Lyonne, Fr, Samama has claimed that the attacker thinks Jewish are part of a complot that has brought him all the terrible things that had happened in his life.
The 2010 victim was also a Jewish wearing a Kippa. The suspect hurt him with an iron bar.
Rabbi Samama urges authorities to take actions against this man that had already injured two people in Strasbourg, where a large community of Jews-15 thousands- lives in the city. Jews represent 5 percent of Strasbourg population. Samama stated that the recent incident does not reflect the climate of the city.
The Jewish community has been under attack in France in the past years
Islamist extremist militants have attacked the Jewish community in France in recent years. A kosher supermarket was assaulted by a jihadist gunman linked to the shootings at Charlie Hebdo magazine.
Amedy Coulibaly, the shooter, killed four Jewish men on January 9. And his brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi had killed twelve people two days earlier on the Charlie Hebdo offices. In March 2012, a Jewish school in Toulouse was also attacked.
The shootings in Paris last year and the terrorist attack that claimed over 82 lives in Nice have the French in a constant state of alert.
Source: Time