CAIRO, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Leaders and foreign ministries of several Middle East states on Thursday condemned the deadly knife attack at a church in the French city of Nice, while cautioning against linking it to religion.
The attack took place on Thursday morning at the Notre-Dame basilica in the heart of Nice, southeastern France, leaving three killed. The alleged perpetrator was shot by the police and transferred to a hospital.
Shortly after the attack, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Nice, calling the incident as an "Islamist terrorist attack." The French national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office said it would investigate the incident under "attempted assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise."
Lebanese President Michel Aoun slammed the "terror attack" in a letter sent to Macron, said a statement released by Lebanon's presidency.
Aoun extended his condolences to Macron and the French poeple, while expressing Lebanon's support for France during these tough times.
Egypt's Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the deadly attack in a statement, saying "Egypt rejects such terrorist incidents, which completely contradict human nature and the teachings of all heavenly religions."
It added that Egypt's government and people stand in solidarity with their French counterparts in facing such a hideous attack.
Al-Azhar, the top Sunni institution in Egypt and the Muslim world, also denounced the attack in Nice as a "hateful terrorist attack," while warning against escalating "rhetoric of violence and hatred."
Kuwait's Foreign Ministry expressed in a statement its principled and firm stance against all forms of terrorism and violence, which it said are rejected by all divine religions and human values.
It called for increasing global efforts to reject the practices that may generate hatred among peoples and fuel extremism, radicalism and terrorism.
In a statement, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, while calling for "going beyond the tense climate around religion" and urging "all parties to show restraint, wisdom and respect for others."
Tunisia warned of the consequences of "ideological and political manipulation of religion and linking it to terrorism."
"Tunisia strongly condemns the terrorist incident ... and warns against the ideological and political use of sacred values and religions, and associating them with terrorism," said the Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.
It stressed that Tunisia calls for keeping religion away from the scourge of terrorism, which is "a transnational phenomenon which has no identity, gender or color."
Mohsen El Daly, Tunisia's deputy prosecutor, revealed that the authority has launched an investigation into a Tunisian national suspected of having committed the attack.
Meanwhile, Turkey, whose ties with France have recently been strained, also slammed the attack and conveyed condolences to the French people.
"We condemn the heinous terrorist attack in the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice," Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said on Twitter.
"Terrorism has no religion, language or color," he said, emphasizing that Turkey will fight with determination and solidarity against all forms of terrorism and extremism.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry also condemned the attack in France, saying that there can be no reason to excuse the killing of a human being and justify violence.
The row between Turkey and France escalated after the beheading of a history teacher outside a middle school in Paris on Oct. 16 after reportedly showing his students the caricatures of Prophet Mohammad.
Macron later condemned the killing, while vowing that France "will not give up our cartoons." This angered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said Macron "needs mental treatment" and called for a boycott of French goods. Enditem
