While the people of France face a violent insurgency aimed at toppling their democracy and conquering France from within for the Salafist cause, the leaders of France continue to equivocate about who this enemy is and what the nature and ideology of this enemy is. Salafism is taking root among Muslims worldwide, but France’s Muslim population is leaning more strongly toward the Salafist ideology than most Muslim populations in the West.
Even as the leaders, including Prime Minister Hollande, equivocate and refuse to name, confront, and marginalize the Salafist ideology, the Salafist vanguard is being emboldened in France to attack the civilian population.
While two of the attackers who murdered the staff at Charlie Hebdo, a satirical and anti-religious weekly newspaper, were holed up with hostages at a printing plant 25 miles north of Paris, a second attack and hostage situation took place in Paris.
Authorities say Amedy Coulibaly stormed a kosher market, patronized by Jewish citizens, and, after either killing or wounding numerous individuals, took hostages at around the same time as the first hostage situation unfolded. Amedy and his girlfriend, Hayat Boumediene, a couple who are cadres in the Salafist cause, are believed to have murdered Paris Police Officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe while she was handling a minor traffic accident. Hayat is not on site and is at large in Paris. Officials fear a third attack is being planned. She is believed to have helped Amedy in some material way. Amedy, meanwhile, has stated that if the French police forces storm the site of the first attack he will kill the hostages he was holding. (There are mixed reports that Hayat was also involved.)
Police stormed both locations at around the same time and there are reports that the hostage takers were killed and all of the hostages were freed. However, there were also reports that 4 hostages were killed at the kosher grocery store and two police officers were wounded in that assualt.
It should be noted that while the Salafist cadres are armed, the French population have no legally protected right to self-defense and are therefore disarmed. This means that while the aggressors from within, operating out of Muslim-controlled “no-go zones”, where French law is not enforced, can choose any civilian target and be assured that they will not faced armed resistance.
The existence of these no-go zones throughout Paris and in some areas of France is considered in and of itself a key factor for the planning of Salafist attacks which cannot be detected by intelligence agencies. The unwillingness of the French government to identify, let alone investigate those who espouse, the Salafist jihad ideology or its increasing dominance of Muslim groups and the Muslim population have effectively tied the hands of security forces.
This problem is endemic throughout the West and is symptomatic of a civilization in its winter phase of decline and fall. Similarly US leaders and many media are reacting just as the French leadership are. In fact, individuals who are suspected of espousing Salafist ideology are feared to be in the employ of the American Department of Homeland Security and it is alleged they are among the Muslims who are considered counselors of the American President, who also refuses to name the ideology of the worldwide Islamic Salafist movement. It is not verified that these accusations are true, but the fact that the American government refuses to openly name and counter the Salafist jihad ideology and its proponents as enemies only raises suspicion, even if it is unfounded.
America’s ally, Saudi Arabia, not only espouses Salafism but plants Mosques abroad, including in the US, which teach and promote this imperialistic, authoritarian, and intolerant ideology to Muslims everywhere. Meanwhile, the Council on American Islamic Relations, which some terrorism experts consider to be a Salafist front group, is favored by the current American administration even as other Arab and non-Salafist countries have labeled it as a terrorist organization.
It is not known whether these attacks by Salafist militants will change the view of the French regarding the influx of Muslim populations which have been radicalized by Salafist ideology, but many predict a rise in anti-Islamic sentiment which may target both Salafist and non-Salafist Muslims alike. This is owing to a refusal to name the Salafist ideology is a distinct and dangerous sub-set of the Muslim faith which is not necessarily shared by most people of the Muslim faith. However, in France, a significant minority, perhaps even a majority, of Muslims have shown sympathy for Salafist positions and most French Muslim institutions are controlled by Salafist or Salafist leaning leaders.
As noted, the hostage taker in the second attack was demanding that the two suspects of the Charlie Hebdo attack be freed as a condition of releasing their hostages and had threatened to kill hostages if police storm the print plant. Police opted to storm both sites at the same time. It has been posited that the second two attackers are part of the same group, a cell with a support base of dozens who provide supplies and safe houses. Over a dozen Salafists associated with this group have been captured by French forces.
Cherif and Said Kouachi, suspects in the attack on Charlie Hebdo, stormed the CTF Creation Tendance Decouverte, a printing plant, and had an unknown number of hostages.
Meanwhile, another incident near the Eiffel Tower at Trocadero Square involved police at both the Eiffel Tower and near a subway entrance with weapons at the ready clearing people off. The French Interior Ministry (which handles policing for the entire French state) denies that there was an incident, but Twitter users on scene tweeted the following pictures:
Pictured- French Police at Trocadero Square with drawn weapons. From @Steiner1776
Pictured: police swarm Trocadero Square near the Eiffel Tower. Photo: @NationFMike
Pictured: police on scene at the Eiffel Tower, seen clearing people from the site. Photo: @mutiezo
All or most of these attackers have a long criminal record and have been apprehended for terrorism related activities but subsequently released. Many Muslims in France who become incarcerated for non-terrorism related crimes are radicalized because France’s prisons allow Salafist Muslim Imams to enter the prison and openly preach and recruit from among the population of Muslim prisoners, this all in the name of free speech and freedom of religion.
Meanwhile Andrew Parker, head of Britain’s MI5, used a rare speech at MI5 headquarters in London to warn that, “A group of core al Qaeda terrorists in Syria is planning mass casualty attacks against the West.”
These attacks in France also raise questions about New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio’s cessation of a previous policy by the NYPD of tracking and monitoring Salafist ideology in New York’s mosques. Currently, the proliferation of that ideology and the organizing of Salafist cells in New York continue apace without any real monitoring let alone counter-actions by authorities. The likelihood of such attacks in the US is calculated to be “inevitable” by most security and terrorism experts.