CAUGHT IN DEADLY TERROR CROSSFIRE
Nice truck horror illustrates France’s acute vulnerability to Islamist attacks
IN the days when Islamic State was advancing across Syria and Iraq, its official spokesman singled out France in a chilling threat.
Abu Mohammed al-Adnani urged Muslims to “kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French”.
No one is sure why Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian origin, crushed 84 people to death beneath the wheels of his lorry in Nice.
But he may have acted on the incitement to murder issued by IS.
If so, this tragedy provides further proof of France’s acute vulnerability to Islamist terrorism.
France has the biggest Muslim minority in Europe, approaching 10% of the population — a larger pool within which a small minority can be radicalised. And the social divide between some Muslim communities and the national mainstream appears wider than elsewhere in Europe.
In this polarised situation, radical Islamists find their echo on the far right — and the two strands of extremism feed off one another.
Patrick Calvar, head of France’s domestic intelligence service, said in May that the “confrontation between the extreme right and the Muslim world” risked placing France on the “verge of a civil war”.
In blunt remarks to a closed parliamentary inquiry — later leaked to the press — Calvar asked what would happen if vigilantes retaliated after a terrorist attack, or a French version of the sexual violence in Cologne, by assaulting Muslim immigrants in general. Suppose there were “punitive expeditions in the suburbs”, triggering a cycle of retaliation and counter-retaliation.
“Where is the spark going to come from that will light the powder, transforming France into an uncontrollable country where groups take up arms and hand out their own justice?” asked Calvar. “Nothing is excluded in a country as eruptive as France today.”
Another telling indicator is the fact that France has provided more foreign fighters for IS in Syria than any other European nation.
In addition, France is part of the Schengen area, giving it open borders with Europe. Unlike Britain — which has retained its frontier controls and is an island — France can do little to prevent the flow of suspected terrorists or weapons into its territory.
Some of the terrorists who planned and executed the Paris attacks in November last year lived in Brussels. They took advantage of free movement between the two cities.
Finally, there is evidence that France’s intelligence agencies and security services are overwhelmed by the scale of the threat. Monitoring thousands of suspects is exceptionally labour-intensive.
The government had planned to lift the state of emergency, in place since the Paris massacre, on July 26.
But that aspiration has gone by the board. The tragedy in Nice shows that any country that holds free celebrations and public gatherings is inherently vulnerable to murderous fanatics. — © THE driver of a truck who killed scores of people on the Nice seafront was a Tunisian petty criminal described by his father as a violent depressive and by neighbours as a loner who showed no outward sign of being a devout Muslim.
Investigators have been piecing together a picture of the 31-year-old father of three who slammed a truck into crowds at a Bastille Day fireworks display, killing 84 people.
Anti-terrorism prosecutor François Molins identified him as Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, “a delivery man” who had a criminal record but no known terrorist connection.
His identity papers and a bank card were found in the truck and his identity was confirmed by fingerprints, said Molins.
Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot dead by police at the wheel of the 19-ton lorry.
Speaking outside his home in Msaken, eastern Tunisia, the attacker’s father said he had suffered from depression and had “no links” to religion.
“From 2002 to 2004, he had problems that caused a nervous breakdown,” said Mohamed Mondher Lahouaiej-Bouhlel.
“We are also shocked,” he said, adding that he had not seen his son since he left for France but was not sure when that was.