French Prime Minister: 'We Are at War...Against Terrorism and Radical Islam

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said his nation is at war against terrorism and radical Islam.

"We're at war, but not at war against a religion, not against a civilization, but at war to defend our values, which are universal," Valls said in his late Saturday speech, the Huffington Post reported. "It is a war against terrorism and radical Islam, against everything aimed at breaking solidarity, liberty and fraternity."

Manuel Valls (Image source: YouTube)

Following deadly terrorist attacks over the last three days, the prime minister encouraged his fellow citizens to take part in Sunday's planned unity demonstration — and to avoid lumping all Muslims in the radical camp.

"Our compatriots and citizens who are Muslim by confession and culture are also the victims of terrorism," Valls continued. "This is perhaps the most important message: the refusal of this confusion. Jihadism tries to create that confusion."

"We are not a collection of communities, we are one nation, a Republic with values: generosity, solidarity, fraternity, secularism," he also said. "We must also be lucid: antisemitism, racism, hatred of the other, these things are intolerable... Journalists were killed for drawing, police were killed for protecting us, and Jews were killed because they were Jewish. This is what is intolerable. The indignation must be total and permanent."

This story has been updated.