Mahmoud Doua, imam of the mosque in Cenon, located on the outskirts of Bordeaux, heard the terrible news as he was leaving prayer on Friday, October 13. On a day when devout Muslims are called to gather together to pray to God, an assailant, with the profile of a radicalized Islamist, went to a high school in the northern French town of Arras. There, he killed a teacher and seriously wounded two other people.

The religious leader believes that there is no time to hesitate. His next sermon, on October 20, will be devoted to the events of this Friday: an act that he "condemns." For him, talking about this is "urgent": "As soon as there's violence, there's no more God." "We need to come back to this tirelessly, not give up, not get discouraged and speak out at every odious act of this type," Doua believes. He insists that all imams in France "must react" as soon as "there is violence." And they must do so in order to remind people, again and again, that the Islam claimed by terrorists, whether French or foreign, has nothing to do with the one they teach and hold to be true.

Tareq Oubrou, imam of Bordeaux's Grand Mosque, believes that the need to speak out is all the greater now that French society is "questioning these phenomena, this violence committed by Muslims," which needs explanation. "Every time the name of God is invoked in violence, we have to respond," he emphasizes. A religious word must be spoken to condemn. Otherwise, it will be understood as approval."

Oubrou regrets that some use "religion as a way to give meaning to their actions," and that some Muslims "have a real problem reading and understanding religion and what it says." In this context, he believes that imams need to be very careful in their preaching. "We're faced with a generation whose identity is fickle, who go on the Internet and find what they're looking for. We can't teach religion the way we used to," he warns. "Nowadays, religion is no longer taught by scholars, but by an excessive popularization of Islam available on social media, and we have to be careful about that."

For Mohammed Moussaoui, President of the French Muslim Council (CFCM) and of the Union of French Mosques, to which almost a thousand places of worship are affiliated, condemnation of terrorist acts is first and foremost a matter of French citizenship. "We condemn any attack, whatever the motive or the religion of the assailant," he insists. His organization has also joined the Grand Mosque of Paris, the Chief Rabbi of France Haïm Korsia, and other religions in expressing concern and sorrow at "the deadly actions carried out by Hamas from the Gaza Strip and the reactions they provoke in Israel and the Gaza Strip."

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