The Executive of the Conservative Muslim Forum was horrified by the recent killings in France. Firstly three French soldiers (two Muslims and one Catholic) were murdered and then three young Jewish children, two of them brothers, have been murdered along with the father of the two brothers. All of these murders were carried out in cold blood.

The murder of anyone is a monstrous crime. God says to us in the Quran, verse 5.32, Muhammad Asad translation, “Because of this did We ordain unto the children of Israel that if anyone slays a human being unless it be [in punishment] for murder or for spreading corruption on earth – it shall be as though he had slain all mankind”. The crime becomes even more appalling when the victims are young children.

Our hearts go out to the bereaved families, and to the other young children at the Ozar Hatorah school who will have been traumatised by these killings.

At the time of writing, all of the available information indicates that the murderer is a French Muslim who claims association with Al Qaeda. If this is correct, then the CMF Executive has no hesitation in condemning this individual as violating everything that we believe in.