THE 6 UNEXPECTED REASONS BEHIND PARIS ATTACKS
“If you can kill an American or European infidel, especially the dirty, nasty French, then count on Allah, kill him any way you can,” one Isis spokesperson said.
With a heavy heart, I’m writing this for you.
I’ve been on France24 live, and on Twitter – following Agence France Presse (AFP) and la Préfecture de police Paris, relaying critical information to the people who were in need in Paris, and their friends across the world. I’ve been doing this since Friday evening, when I found the first shocking message in my Facebook feed about Paris being under attack.
I though that this was my responsibility, to help with my research, from the distance, to do something for the people who would be lucky enough to get my messages. It ended up that many people would come to my FB page and use the information I was finding. I had my little barricade, and proud to be of service.
The question asked by most people was: WHY?
The attack of Charlie Hebdo is barely part of the past. Just 10 months ago, we were in shock watching images that we are not used to see coming from the streets of Paris. And yet, this Friday 13th was the first time to see suicide bombers in France, who chose 6 soft targets, hard to protect. Perfectly orchestrated.
So, WHY?
First, let me remind you the timeline of the horrific night we are leaving behind.
2h20
Stade de France
Stade de FrancePetit CambodgeRue Fontaine au RoiLa Belle ÉquipeBoulevard
During a soccer match between France and Germany, an explosion is detonated outside the stadium north of Paris.
Two bodies found later were linked to the blast; one appeared to be a suicide bomber and the other a passerby.
21h25
Le Petit Cambodge
Masked attackers armed with Kalashnikovs shoot into restaurants in Paris’ 10th district, killing 15 people, according to the prosecutor.
Witnesses say the attackers arrived in a black vehicle, he said.
21h30
Stade de France
A second explosion is detonated outside the stadium. The body of a second suicide bomber is found later, with an explosive vest identical to the first,
21h32
Rue de la Fontaine au Roi
Five people are killed in a shooting outside a bar in Paris’ 11th district, according to the prosecutor.
The attackers arrived in a black car, the prosecutor said.
21h36
La Belle Équipe
Stade de FrancePetit CambodgeRue Fontaine au RoiLa Belle ÉquipeBoulevard VoltaireBataclan
Attackers in a black car open fire with assault rifles outside a restaurant, killing 19.
21h40
Boulevard Voltaire
A suicide bomber explodes in a restaurant, using a device similar to that used by the bombers at the stadium, according to the prosecutor. Several people are injured, but no deaths are reported.
21h40
Bataclan
Three attackers open fire during a rock concert and then take audience members hostage. After gathering hostages in front of the stage, the attackers give a brief speech, mentioning Iraq and Syria.
At 00h20, French elite police units storm the concert hall, killing one of the attackers. The other two detonate suicide belts as police enter.
According to the prosecutor, 89 people were killed, not including the attackers.
21h53
Stade de France
A third explosion at the stadium is detonated. The body of a suicide bomber is discovered later, according to the prosecutor.
(CNN)
Since then, 129 people died and, among the 352 wounded, 99 are in critical condition, to this moment. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks on Saturday.
What is chilling is that the IS group says that France is at the ‘top’ of the list of their targets. According to France24’s International Affairs Editor, Armen Georgian, there are 6 reasons for this.
First, TIMES gives us some background:
“France has been more closely engaged with the Muslim world longer than any other Western country. Since 1830, when it conquered Algeria, it has seen much of Muslim Africa as its own backyard. And after World War I, France took control of Syria and Lebanon as well. Many French settled in North Africa, and after World War II, many North Africans came to France to work in new factories, most settling in poor areas in Paris, Lyon, and the industrialized north. In the post-industrial era, factories were shut down but the settlers stayed. And it is their children and grandchildren who in 2005 exploded in rage over their exclusion from French society. The 1995 movie La Haine showed this rage before the fact—and also made clear that these explosions had nothing to with religion.”
Tampa Bay Times shows us the backstage:
“The stench of death will not leave their noses as long as they remain at the forefront of the Crusaders’ campaign, dare to curse our prophet, boast of a war on Islam in France, and strike Muslims in the lands of the caliphate with warplanes that were of no use to them in the streets and rotten alleys of Paris,” IS said.
France is part of the U.S.-led coalition that has been striking the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq for the past year, and has been targeted by Jihadists in the past because of its perceived tolerance of speech deemed offensive to Islam.
Jihadists have targeted France on a number of occasions, including in January, when gunmen stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine that had published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad deemed offensive to Muslims. That attack, which killed 12 people, was claimed by al-Qaida.
Here are the 6 reasons why France holds the number 1 place on IS’ list, according to France24’s Armen Georgian:
1. France is the most active in Africa fighting against Jihad
“France’s population of 66 million is now approximately 10 percent Islamic. Estimates are sketchy because, in a vestige of its vanishing secularist tradition, France does not collect census data about religious affiliation. Still, between 6 and 7 million Muslims are reasonably believed to be resident in the country (Pew put the total at 4.7 million back in 2010 – other analysts peg it higher today). To many in France, the number seems higher, due to both the outsize influence of Islamist activists on the political class and the dense Muslim communities in and around Paris – approximating 15 percent of the local population. An online poll conducted by Ipsos Mosi in 2014 found that the average French citizen believes Muslims make up about a third of the country’s population.
Free expression is the gateway to assimilation. Consequently, radical Islam cannot tolerate it.
Once one grasps the voluntary apartheid strategy, it becomes obvious why radical Islam’s inroads in France, and elsewhere in Europe, seamlessly translate into demands for the enforcement of sharia’s curbs on speech and artistic expression. What is not so obvious is just how profound a challenge to the West this constitutes.”
(counterjihadreport.com/)
2. France’s Mali anti-Jihad operations
“Operation Serval (French: Opération Serval) was a French military operation in Mali. The aim of the operation was to oust Islamic militants in the north of Mali, who had begun a push into the center of Mali.
On July 19, 2014, François Hollande announced a new phase in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism in Africa: Operation Barkhane. ”
(nationalinterest.org)
“Named after a crescent-shaped sand dune, Operation Barkhane comprises a 3,000-strong French force spread across five countries in the most wide-ranging French military deployment since World War II. ”
(France24)
3. France is by far the most interventionist from the western powers
“What is being done in Mali is in our interests and should support France’s actions,” the [British] prime minister told the BBC. But Cameron made clear there would be no British “boots on the ground” and that while London was prepared to provide limited logistical support, there was no question of joining France’s air campaign.
Germany, Europe’s self-avowedly most powerful state, is keeping its head down. Berlin prefers selling arms to using them, as a recent damning investigation of the “Merkel Doctrine” by Der Spiegel revealed.
Italy, Spain and other southern EU members who, it might be thought, have most to fear from al-Qaida-inspired terrorism spreading north from the Sahel, are also steering clear of Mali’s sand traps.
Washington considered its own direct intervention last summer, but decided it was too risky.
(France’s lonely intervention in Mali: The Guardian)
4. France has the strongest anti IS coalition
“French planes have taken part in airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq, and the nation has flown reconnaissance flights over Iraq, contributed ammunition and made humanitarian drops over the nation. France’s air force was also part of an operation in the Iraqi town of Amerli, along with Australia and Great Britain, that pushed back ISIS fighters. ISIS has called for attacks against Western citizens, singling out “the spiteful and filthy French” for punishment. A video emerged of militants who have pledged allegiance to ISIS beheading Herve Gourdel, a French citizen who was kidnapped in Algeria.”
(CNN)
5. France’s bombing the IS targets in Iraq
France’s defense ministry said the destroyed building, containing vehicles, weapons and fuel, had been hit four times. “We were able to do this thanks to the reconnaissance missions we have been carrying out since Monday. The mission was carried out in direct coordination with the Iraqi authorities and our allies in the region,” it said. “The threat from this jihadist group is unusual because of its size, its weaponry, its determination and its actions. Our goal is to contribute to peace and security in Iraq and to weaken the terrorists.”
(The Guardian)
6. The separation of the church in state French schools – extremists attack on the principle of secularism
Secularism in France (definition by wikipedia):
France’s banning of religious symbols in state schools is incomprehensible to many Europeans. But “laïcité” – French-style secularism – is an ideology, defining what it means to be French“The French Republic has nourished a sense of combat with the Church—which for some means with religion of any sort. If in the 19th century, the Church retained its hold on young minds through its monopoly of primary schools, by the end of that century the state had built a secular and free system of schools. Thereafter, the Dreyfus affair pitted an openly anti-Semitic Catholic establishment against pro-Republican intellectuals, Vichy gave powers to anti-Jewish French officials, and after the war schools continued to be the focal point, a microcosm, of the battle between religious and secularist camps.”
(TIME)
So, then what is IS’ message?
According to France24:
a. this is an enormous propaganda message used to attract recruits;
b. the intention is to create tension in France and create a riff in the muslim community, consequently create a more powerful right, which would lead to muslims being hated, so the only way for them to deal with the situation is to join the Jihad army.
TIME agrees:
“The attack risks to add fuel to the rise of the Far Right in France and throughout Europe. The National Front is already spinning the attack as showing up the basic incompatibility of Islam and the values of France. Even as its leader, Marine Le Pen, the much smoother political heir to her father, Jean-Marie, maintains a moderate line, officially stating that France was united for freedom of expression, she added that “the time for hypocrisy was over,” and that not confusing Islam with terrorism not ought to lead us to deny the obvious. Some of her lieutenants went further, attacking Islam directly, and the immediate commentators to Le Monde’s on-line coverage overwhelmingly took this line: anti-religion and anti-Islam.
France will not change its decades-old foreign policy, nor are rights and practices of satire likely to fade away. But the main impact may be to use the attacks as an excuse to blame Islam and immigration for broad anxieties about where things are going in Europe today. Such a confusion can only strengthen the far right.”
Whether these reasons have any power of healing or any bearing on the future, people are still in disbelief.
Sara, asks on FB: “How can we make the world a safe place filled with love and light?”
Aside from the UN efforts, G20 and the meeting of the great powers in Vienna, we gather silently in la place de la République lighting up candles, against the city’s warnings to stay home, and we sing la Marseillaise.
We bring the motto from the depth of our history to keep us together: Fluctuat nec mergitur, the motto of Paris: « Elle est agitée par les vagues, et ne sombre pas » (“She is tossed by the waves but does not sink”).
We cry, we hug, we kiss and we love, we live, we sing, we have champagne and we stay strong. We refuse to be afraid or to bow to terror in any way.
Nobody puts Parisians in a corner.
Photo credit: AFP
