Trappes Attack: Hate Divides, the Republic Unites, by Manuel Valls

His name was Pengo Bossio Wangi. He was 26 years old. On October 23, in Trappes, he was shot dead by a man who fired bursts of gunfire at targeted passersby. Seven other people were injured, including a 12-year-old girl. The shooter, close to the most violent ultra-right, stated that he targeted individuals who were African, North African, or of Muslim faith. A copy of "Mein Kampf" was discovered at his home, which he had booby-trapped. It is a despicable act, a xenophobic, racist terrorist attack that must outrage us all.

Trappes, the Reflection of Social Crises

My thoughts go out to the victims and residents of Trappes and La Verrière, who are now afraid, like many French people, to leave their homes. The entire nation must stand in solidarity and join together in reflection. As mayor of Évry for eleven years, I know what a suburban town faces when it is caricatured and stigmatized. But grief does not permit confusion. The President of the Republic used unfortunate words when he claimed that, for the first time, French citizens were targeted for their skin color or religion, before having to correct himself. Ilan Halimi, the children of the Ozar Hatorah school, the customers of the Hyper Cacher, Father Hamel, Aboubakar Cissé, stabbed in a mosque in Gard, Hichem Miraoui, shot dead in Var—the first racist murder potentially linked to the far right taken up by the anti-terrorist prosecutor's office; the list of those killed for who they were is long. Entering into a victimhood competition is playing into the hands of those who seek to fracture the nation.

Trappes is also a reflection of the social crises and upheavals in contemporary France. This town saw dozens of young people leave for the Syrian jihad, and Islamism has gained ground there. But thousands of French people also live there who work, raise their children, and love our country, their country. Trappes is neither "Kabul" nor a "miniature Islamic Republic," as leaders of the RN have said.

This attack must not prohibit discussions about Islamism and the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, nor the complacency of certain elected officials toward them, nor the control of immigration, nor insecurity, nor what I have termed the territorial, social, and ethnic apartheid affecting working-class neighborhoods. However, it must forbid odious generalizations and confining an entire population to a single label. One cannot reduce Trappes to its Islamists, any more than one can reduce our Muslim compatriots to a threat.

A Racist Crime

I nevertheless refuse to use the term "Islamophobia." It maintains a deliberate confusion between the criticism of a religion, which is a freedom, and hatred of individuals, which is a crime. A term that pilloried Salman Rushdie and decimated the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo. We must use the right words to unite. What happened in Trappes is a racist crime, fueled by hatred of Muslims, Black people, and Arabs. Nor will I accept lessons from a party complacent with the violence of the ultra-left, LFI, which trivialized antisemitism, refused to qualify Hamas as terrorist in the aftermath of October 7, 2023, and turned hatred of Jews into an electoral tool. One does not fight one form of racism by tolerating another.

In France, there is only one community: the national community. Secularism is not a weapon against a religion; it guarantees everyone the right to believe or not believe, and to live in peace with their neighbor. It is the 1905 law, public schooling, and equality between women and men. The Republic recognizes neither Blacks, nor Arabs, nor Jews, nor Muslims, nor Christians. It recognizes only citizens. Different skin colors are a richness, and they all blend into the colors of the tricolor flag.

Everything is uninhibited today in our society, especially hate on social networks, in the media, or in the political arena. Such rhetoric ideologically arms those who wish to take action. Republicans, on the left as well as on the right, must unite to combat racism, hatred of Jews, theories of the "great replacement" and "remigration," as well as this climate of violence and rancid passions that damages the country.

Pengo Bossio Wangi died because a man decided he was not from here. He was from here, and one of ours. Just like all the residents of Trappes and La Verrière. And France will let no one sort its children.