Lassana Bathily

The country of France decided to show its appreciation for a young man responsible for saving dozens of lives during a hostage standoff by Muslim terrorists at a kosher grocery store earlier this month by rewarding him with citizenship.

The Daily Caller is reporting on the story of Lassana Bathily, an employee of the Hyper Cacher grocery store who risked his life to shelter shoppers when the heavily armed jihadist Amedy Coulibaly stormed the shop on January 9. Bathily helped 15 shoppers hide in a walk-in refrigerator for five hours during the standoff that left four hostages and Coulibaly dead.

He reportedly told his fellow hostages: "We are brothers, it's not a question of Jews, of Christians or of Muslims, we are all in the same boat, we have to help each other to get out of this crisis."

Bathily was able to escape the building during the siege, but was arrested and handcuffed by French Gendarmerie for almost two hours under suspicion of being connected with the gunman; however, when the truth was finally exposed, authorities realized he was actually responsible for saving seven Jewish lives that day.

More than 300,000 French citizens submitted a petition to the government asking that Bathily be rewarded for his heroism.

Authorities decided to honor him by making his dream of citizenship come true. His application, which was filed last summer, was “expedited” and the 24 year-old Muslim immigrant from Mali, who came to France almost 10 years ago, became an official French citizen during a formal ceremony hosted by the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

During the ceremony, Cazeneuve called his brave actions “the symbol of an Islam of peace and tolerance.”

Bathily was humble when questioned by the press.

“I am not a hero,” he said. “I am trying to stay myself.”

Some are now suggesting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu designate Bathiily as “Righteous Among the Nations”, an honor given by the Israeli government to non-Jews who helped save Jews during the Holocaust. As of this writing, it is not known if the prime minister will consider bestowing the honor, but he has publicly thanked Bathily for his bravery.

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