Government & Politics

French Reconquête launches European election campaign The national-conservative party calls for 'unveiling' of the extent of Islamisation of France and Europe.

(European Conservative) Éric Zemmour and Marion Maréchal officially launched their campaign for the European elections with a major rally in Paris on Sunday, March 10th, designed to recapture the heyday of its presidential campaign when the Reconquête party managed to gather thousands […]

Academics & Education

Senate report sounds the alarm (again) on radical Islam in French schools Teachers report living with students threatening to 'faire une Paty' — in reference to the beheading of history teacher Samuel Paty — on a daily basis.

(European Conservative) The French Senate just made public the findings of a parliamentary inquiry launched in the wake of the murder of Professor Samuel Paty by an Islamist terrorist. The findings on the state of French schools are alarming and show that […]

Government & Politics

France slashes Olympics opening ceremony crowd size amid terror attack fears French President Emmanuel Macron asked for capacity to be reduced to half of what was initially planned for showpiece event.

(Politico) France has scaled down the Paris 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony which will take place in July on the River Seine, amid concerns over a theoretical Islamist terror attack. Boats carrying each nation’s flag-bearers will pass on the water in the […]

Clerics & Preachers

French interior minister announces plans to introduce new ‘imam status’ The success of the status will depend on the willingness of Muslim communities in France to embrace it

(Morocco World News) Following the expulsion of Imam Mahjoub Mahjoubi to Tunisia, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin unveiled earlier this week the designation of “imam in France” status. The minister made the announcement in a speech tackling the notion that Islam is […]

Academics & Education

Bereaved father from 2012 Toulouse attack: ‘We’re not safe but life goes on’ Yaacov Monsonego, director of the Ohr Torah (formerly Ozar Hatorah) school in the French city, lost his daughter Myriam to the terrorist shooting.

(JNS) On March 19, 2012, Mohammed Merah, a French-Algerian supporter of al-Qaeda, carried out a shooting attack on the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse, killing a teacher, Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his two sons, Gabriel, 3, and Aryeh, 6, and an 8-year-old girl, Myriam […]

Government & Politics

Benzema’s defamation suit against top French minister is dismissed The French football star had filed a complaint against France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin after the politician said Benzema was linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

(Politico) Karim Benzema’s defamation lawsuit against French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who claimed the French football star was “notoriously linked” to the Muslim Brotherhood, has been dismissed. Benzema filed the complaint last month, following multiple remarks by Darmanin linking the striker to […]

Legal

France and Belgium in legal battle over Islamist terrorist Belgian lawyers and the French left have taken up the Paris 2015 attacker’s cause.

(European Conservative) On Wednesday, February 7th, French Justice Minister Éric [Dupond]-Moretti announced the arrival on French soil of the terrorist Salah Abdeslam, who until then had been imprisoned in Belgium, to serve an “irreducible life imprisonment” (perpétuité incompressible) — a penalty that […]

Legal

European prosecutors adopt harsher sentences towards female ISIS returnees New book shows how different countries are adapting to an increase in female extremists behind bars

(National-UAE) European prosecutors are adopting harsher sentences towards female ISIS returnees as their numbers increase due to government repatriation programmes from prison camps in north-east Syria, a new book published by Dutch counter-terrorism think tank ICCT has found. “Women can be both […]

Christians

Trèbes terrorist attack, five years on: A trial and a conversion The terrorism trial is an opportunity to recall the extraordinary heroism of Gendarmerie Colonel Arnaud Beltrame.

(European Conservative) Five years after the Islamist attacks that cost a gendarmerie officer his life, the trial against the terrorism co-conspirators opened in Paris this week. Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame died at the hands of terrorists in the Islamist attacks in Trèbes and […]

Clerics & Preachers

France to cease acceptance of foreign-appointed imams starting 2024 France’s history of controversial measures has fueled concerns that this latest move is a continuation of policies targeting Islamic practices.

(Morocco World News) French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has announced that France will no longer accept new “detached imams” from foreign countries starting on January 1, 2024. The announcement follows President Emmanuel Macron’s 2020 decision to end the presence of around 300 […]

Academics & Education

Penalizing satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for defamation is ‘historic’: Muslim association Court fined magazine's editor-in-chief, another journalist $3,330 each for linking school to Muslim Brotherhood

(Anadolu) Penalizing the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for defamation is a “historical decision,” a Muslim association said. The controversial magazine was fined on Dec. 22 for defaming the Muslim school “Valeurs et Reussite” in France’s southeastern town of Valence. The school […]

Christians

Warning of ‘increased risk’ of ISIS terror attacks across Europe on New Year’s Eve Experts say terror group remains a 'serious threat' as arrests made in Spain, Austria, France and Germany

(National-UAE) Security services across Europe have uncovered an ISIS plot to use explosives to target churches. Counter-terrorism experts say the group remains a “serious threat” and is taking advantage of the conflict in Gaza to motivate its supporters. Over the Christmas period, […]

Books

Hugo Micheron: ‘The jihad has shifted from terrorist cells to families’ The French political scientist, an expert in Islamist extremism, cautions against becoming complacent about terrorism in Europe

(El País) Hugo Micheron, one of the brightest in a long line of French Arabists, recently published La colère et l’oubli (Anger and oblivion, in French), a history of European jihadism in which he explores a landscape still marked by ignorance and […]

Law Enforcement

Cage director banned from entering Switzerland to address meeting at UN Muhammad Rabbani held overnight after being stopped at Geneva Airport in latest incident which he says is a consequence of France adding his name to a European no-entry database

(Middle East Eye) Border authorities in Switzerland have stopped the director of a UK-based human rights group from entering the country to address a meeting at the United Nations office in Geneva “after a request from France.” Posting on social media on […]

Academics & Education

Paty murder trial shines a light on France’s democracy Six minors are standing trial in Paris for their alleged role in the killing of a teacher. But some feel the authorities are missing this opportunity to examine the state of freedom of expression in France.

(Deutsche Welle) The killing of French history teacher Samuel Paty on October 16, 2020, left the country in deep shock. And yet, some feel the first court case on the alleged role of six minors in the attack is failing to bring about […]

Children & Teens

ISIS propaganda seducing ‘new generation of teenagers’: French domestic intel Security chief warns Islamist ideology is likely to exist for a very long time to come.

(Politico) A new generation of French teenagers is being wooed by the Islamic State terrorist group — infamous for its on-camera immolations of captives in Iraq — and seems ominously susceptible to the group’s propaganda, according to the head of France’s DGSI […]