Macron’s War on Terror

A second nationwide COVID lockdown, high unemployment, and dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of the pandemic — but after two barbaric attacks by Islamist radicals in as many weeks, does France have a “clash of civilizations” to add to its fears?

The country was shocked by the grisly October 16 beheading of a schoolteacher, Samuel Paty, in a Paris suburb. The 18-year-old killer, a Chechen immigrant, was angered by the teacher’s civics lesson featuring a cartoon of Muhammad. But while condolences poured in from world leaders, Turkey’s President Erdogan responded to Macron’s criticism of radical Islam by saying that the French leader was “mentally unwell,” calling for a boycott of the country.

Then on October 29, terror struck Nice in southern France, as a newly arrived Tunisian immigrant slaughtered three people in a church. Macron ordered thousands of soldiers to protect places of worship, saying that France was under attack, and sought to calm tensions while again defending France’s secular constitution.

“There are two reasons for this string of attacks,” French political scientist Jean-Yves Camus told Mishpacha. “Firstly, last month Macron angered Muslim leaders by speaking strongly about Islam, calling it a ‘religion in crisis.’ Secondly, France has supported the Greeks in their standoff with Turkey in the Mediterranean, and Armenia in their conflict with Azerbaijan, which has strong links with Turkey.”