Lassana
Bathily, who has lived in France since 2006 and applied for French
nationality in July of last year, was praised for his "bravery" in a
statement by Cazeneuve, which also said the 24-year-old Malian's
naturalisation will be granted at a ceremony on Tuesday.
As
the hostage-taking siege by jihadist Amedy Coulibaly began January 9,
Bathily -- an employee at the kosher store in eastern Paris -- ushered a
group of trapped customers into a cold storage room, shut off the
refrigeration system, and closed the terrified people inside for
protection.
"I heard shots and I saw my colleagues and clients
running down," Bathily recalled later. "I told them 'Come, come,' (and)
got them into the freezer."Bathily proposed helping the hiding clients escape the supermarket through its delivery lift. But when no one wanted to take that risk, Bathily fled alone, flagged down the police, and provided them information on the layout of the store that was vital to the assault that ended the siege.
A
practising Muslim whose heroism drew wide praise -- and 220,000
signatures on an online petition calling for his naturalisation --
Bathily has said his actions were those that any human should take for
others facing threats from a common enemy.
"We're
brothers. It's not a question of Jews, Christians or Muslims," he told
French news channel BFMTV. "We're all in the same boat, and we have to
help one another to get out of this crisis."
One brave, public-spirited young man - is he aware of the enormous hypocrisy of how the system is using him to their perceived advantage? Maybe yes, maybe no - but he will still be a potential victim to the racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric on the streets and in the media. Let's echo his call, 'we're brothers, citizens, immigrants, et al.'
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