PARIS – The Muslim Malian migrant who couragesly rescued a small boy dangling from a balcony in Paris, France,  on May 28, has finally been made a French citizen, BBC reported on September 13.

“This act of great bravery exemplifies the values which help unite our national community, such as courage, selflessness, altruism and taking care of the most vulnerable,” said the official decree published on Wednesday announcing the granting the French citizenship to Mamoudou Gassama.

The brave African Muslims, who had been in France illegally, received international acclaim for his heroic act when he scaled four floors with his bare hands to save the four year old, who was left unsupervised.

The French President Emmanuel Macron personally thanked him and said he would be offered a role in the fire service. He also signed a contract for an internship with the Paris fire service and was given a medal by the city.

Gassama was initially given French residency, a first step towards citizenship, and then fast-tracked to receive French citizenship for his remarkable gesture.

Muslim Immigrants

The ‘Muslim Superman’ arrived in France in 2017 via the Mediterranean migrant route and found a job in a construction company in the capital.

He worked cash-in-hand on building sites and lived in a hostel in the eastern suburb of Montreuil – known as “little Bamako” because of its large Malian population. He hadn’t applied for asylum and was living illegally in France.

Mali, the motherland of Gassama, is a Muslim West African country where Islam represents 95% of its total population according to the CIA Factbook.

The West African nation enjoys a long history with Islam since the 9th century when Muslim Amazigh merchants brought Islam southward from North Africa.

The Malian cities of Timbuktu, Gao and Kano were and still stand as international centers of Islamic learning throughout the Islamic World.