On the anniversary of the November 13, 2015 attacks, Laurent Nuñezthe Home Secretary set out the security measures taken with a national warning that “the threat of Islamic terrorism remains very high.” and he asked everyone for special measures … French governors called for “extreme vigilance”.
Vincent Gaisser, an honorary expert on French Islamic history, commented on this event as follows: “All visible Islam, including the integrated French Muslim elite, is now under suspicion.”
Last summer, then-Interior Minister Bruno Lutailot admitted that secret services were “warning us about the threatening growth of the national presence of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has ambitions to Islamize France.”
Concerns about the threat of Islamic terrorism have dual causes, domestic and international. Islam is France’s second religion. Ten years ago, it was estimated that four or five million French people were Muslim, the majority of them Muslim. Currently, Muslims in France number between 6 and 7 million people and have a very deep cultural affirmation. For 65%, their religion is more important than their nation.
deep roots
Politically, the majority of young French Muslims vote for the far left. And those who feel the temptation of Islamic jihadism are in the minority. This temptation has very deep roots, dating back to around November 13, 10 years ago.
A few months before the tragedy, in January of the same year, the satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo became the victim of a jihadist massacre that sparked international terror. From 2000 to 2015, France was the victim of 20 Islamic terrorist attacks. In the past decade, France has suffered a further 20 Islamist attacks, some of historical significance, such as the murder of Professor Samuel Paty in 2020.
There is another face to this tragic history of French Islamic jihadists. Dozens of young men and women have decided to flee France to join jihadist gangs in the Middle East. Security authorities have registered around 4,000 suspects in Marseille and the Paris region of the banlieues north of the capital, and their surveillance poses serious problems for police.
difficult monitoring
As French citizens, they enjoy absolute freedom of movement, which complicates surveillance. For years, veiled Muslim French women have actively participated in mass demonstrations against the state. These are mostly far-left protests. However, these protests often condemn France’s actions in the Middle East and the Maghreb. Faced with this reality, which has been growing for years, some French imams who are defenders of the nation have denounced the temptations of Islamists.
Imam Hassen Chalgoumi of Drancy defended established law and order and held dialogue with Israeli and French Jews, with dramatic results. He, his wife and family were threatened with death and forced to live under permanent police protection.
In the face of major international crises, such as the war between Hamas and Israel, and the crises in Algeria and Morocco, French Muslims are often tempted by political radicalism. In large regional capitals, including Marseille, Islamic extremists are often linked to arms and drug trafficking. Many years ago, Marseille became the most dangerous city in the western Mediterranean.
With Islam being France’s second religion and Muslim birth rates increasing significantly, the tensions and doubts associated with the memory of that historic day 13 November 10 years ago may be just a symptom of a problem of historical importance.
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