Overview

• Prime Minister François Bayrou publicly advocated for using the term 'islamophobie' to describe the fatal stabbing of a 22-year-old Muslim man in a Gard mosque on April 25, 2025.
• The attacker filmed the killing while shouting insults against Allah, an act Bayrou described as clear evidence of anti-Islam hatred.
• Bayrou's stance has drawn criticism from conservative parties, including Les Républicains, who view the term as ideologically charged and linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
• Left-wing factions remain divided: La France Insoumise supports the term, while figures like Socialist MP Jérôme Guedj have historically rejected it as overly politicized.
• The debate underscores broader tensions in France over secularism, hate-crime terminology, and the politics of language, as public mourning continues for the victim, Aboubakar Cissé.