President Macron's Pathetic Mea Culpa in Conflicted France

 President Emmanuel Macron Oct. 2, 2020. Ludovic Marin/AP

"Actions will be stepped up [against Islamist extremism]."

"This is not about making more statements. Our fellow citizens expect actions. These actions will be stepped up."

"We know what needs to be done."

"We ourselves have constructed our own separatism [by creating ghettos in the suburbs of major cities, particularly Paris]."

"We built a concentration of misery and difficulties, we concentrated populations according to origin and social milieu. We created neighbourhoods where the promise of the republic was never kept and where these most radical forms [of Islamism] became sources of hope." 

French President Emmanuel Macron

"Liberty, equality, fraternity — those words have no value here. They only have value in the centre of Paris."

"Liberty — you go out and the police stop you five or six times a day. Equality — when you try to find work, you don't have the same chance as someone in a rich district of Paris. Fraternity — everyone fears the other, the foreigner — the Black or the North African."

Issa (full name withheld) from Paris suburb of African and North African residents 

"In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful..." 

"Macron, the leader of the infidels, I executed one of your dogs who dared to belittle Muhammad...".

Abdoulakh A, 18-year-old Islamist Assassin

"It is time to close all the Islamist prayer rooms, we know very well where they are." 

"It is an attack on the very existence of our nation and civilization." 

"They have known this for years and have done nothing. Courage is lacking, collaborationists abound. Only force reduces violence... It is time to send radical imams back to their countries of origin without delay."

General Pierre de Villiers

Police officers stand by a knife, seen on the ground, in Paris on Sept. 25, 2020. French terrorism authorities investigated a knife attack that wounded at least two people near the former offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, authorities said. (Soufian Fezzani Via AP)

Following the grotesque beheading of history/geography teacher Samuel Paty, 47, outside his middle-school in the suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine on Friday by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee, the Grand Mosque of Pantin was shuttered for an estimated six-month period as the investigation of the murder proceeds and the French Republic's earlier-made plan to crack down on Islamist extremism in the wake of previous attacks, proceeds. The mosque had shared a video days before the murder, on its Facebook page.

The video had been produced by the father of one of the Muslim students whom the father claimed had been outraged and upset at the teacher's use of a number of Mohammad cartoons in his class of 13-year-olds, dedicated to French values and freedom of speech. The mosque's 1,500 worshipers must now wait for a future date when their mosque will be re-opened after a closure meant "for the sole purpose of preventing acts of terrorism", according to an official notice posted outside the mosque.

"There's no room for violence in our religion", the Pantin mosque declared in a statement it later published on its Facebook page. "We strongly condemn this savagery." M'hammed Henniche, the imam of the Pantin mosque, said he regretted having shared the video on social media, but he was motivated out of concern for the well-being of Muslim children, and had no intention of validating the video's objections to the Mohammad cartoons.

That same man who produced the video is accused of an online campaign against Samuel Paty, and it emerges that he also sent messages to the killer, 18-year-old Abdoulakh A, before the attack took place. The father whose name has been withheld, has been accused as well of issuing a 'fatwa' against Samuel Paty whose horrendous murder has shocked France and sent thousands into the streets to denounce Islamist terrorism, and proclaim their support for the dead teacher and the values he sought to impart to his pupils.

 

The pupil's father along with an imam the media describe as a radical Islamist, are both considered to have jointly issued the fatwa calling for punishment for the teacher -- both are being investigated for an "assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise", according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. The Sheikh Yassin Collective - an Islamist group named after the founder of the Palestinian militant group Hamas - would be outlawed for being "directly involved" in the killing.

 

A further fifty-one French Muslim organizations, including charities and NGOs, are to be inspected by government officials and closed if they are deemed to be promoting hatred. "Police operations have taken place and more will follow, concerning tens of individuals", stated the Interior Minister; altogether some 80 investigations are being conducted into online hate. 

France, according to a police source, was preparing to deport 213 foreigners who are listed on a government watchlist, suspected of extreme religious beliefs. Of the total there are about 150 individuals serving jail sentences. According to a security source the deportations were already in the works before Friday's atrocity. In the 24 hours following the murder of Mr. Paty ten people connected to the attack were arrested.

Moroccan-born Abdelhakim Sefriuoi has used social media for many years and has been on the list of intelligence services for several decades. It was he who formed the Sheikh Yassin Collective, in his activist role supporting the Palestinian 'cause'. Hassen Chalghoumi, imam of the Paris suburb of Drancy's mosque had warned against Islamist extremists and of the influence of imam Sefriuoi, calling on parents not to teach their children to hate France. 

 

Accompanied by other Muslim leaders, Chalghoumi placed flowers outside the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine school, telling reporters the Muslim community must wake to the dangers of Islamist extremism. "[The teacher] is a martyr for freedom of expression, and a wise man who has taught tolerance, civilization and respect for others" Chalghoumi, president of the Imams of France Conference, stated.

 Pictured: Bois-d'Aulne College in Conflans-Saint-Honorine, where Samuel Paty was murdered on October 16. (Photo by Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images)

"A borderline in the abominable has just been crossed."

"They are attacking the most sacred stronghold of the Republic: the school and the physical person of the teachers. A teacher is beheaded for showing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons in a freedom of speech seminar. The victim has reportedly received death threats. The butcher of Conflans-Saint-Honorine is ISIS at home: a solemn message in the form of a macabre ceremony, a warning for all the teaching staff who will have to shut up or perish. This is not an act of 'separatism', it is a declaration of war that must be dealt with accordingly."

French essayist Pascal Bruckner