DECLARED: 'IT'S WAR AGAINST RADICAL ISLAM'
France declared war Saturday against Islamic terrorism and hate, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in defiant speeches aimed at rallying his country in the aftermath of a threeday jihad spree that left 17 people dead.
“It is a war against terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam, against everything that is aimed at breaking fraternity, freedom, solidarity,” Valls said.
“Everyone must take responsibility — politicians and citizens alike,” Valls said.
“We can not let pass a single one of these messages, or a single one of these acts,” Valls said in remarks reported by French media. “Our indignation must be clear, total and last longer than three days. It must be permanent.”
The French people need to stand up for freedom of speech and faith — which in France means keeping religion apart from governance, Valls said.
“We need standards, values and authority,” he said. “There must be a firm message about the values of the republic and secularism. Journalists were killed because they defended freedom. Policemen were killed because they were protecting you. Jews were killed because they were Jewish,” he said, adding that France’s war is against terrorism — but not against Islam.
France has been convulsed by the threeday terror spree, which began Wednesday with the killings of 12 cartoonists and journalists at the office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo at the hands of al Qaedalinked brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi.
The radical Muslims, along with fellow jihadist Amedy Coulibaly, were also responsible for the death of a policewoman on Thursday and the slayings of four shoppers and a standoff at a kosher supermarket on Paris’ eastern edge Friday.
The murderous rampage ended Friday when police killed the hostagetaker at the supermarket and the two Charlie Hebdo killers at a suburban printing shop where they had holed up.
Lassana Bathily, a Muslim clerk at the supermarket, is credited with saving at least 15 Jewish lives during the standoff by herding them into a basement refrigerator. “I told them to calm down, not to make a sound, because if they heard us they could come and take us,” Bathily told a French TV channel.
Meanwhile, more than 700,000 people took to the streets in solidarity demonstrations across France on Saturday.
In the southern city of Toulouse, police said around 80,000 people took part in a march, with the “enormous” procession stretching more than 1¹/₂ miles.
“Live together, free, equal and in solidarity,” read the banner behind which at least 30,000 people also marched in the western city of Nantes.
One million people are expected at a historic rally in Paris today meant as a tribute to the 17 terror victims and as demonstration of worldwide solidarity against terrorism.
Several world leaders are expected to attend, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
US Attorney General Eric Holder will represent the Obama administration.
Jordan’s King Abdullah Queen Rania will attend, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the prime ministers of Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands. The presidents of Mali, Niger and Ukraine are also expected.
An array of French politicians also will be there, including former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is mounting a political comeback and is expected to challenge François Hollande in 2017.
A notable absence will be farright leader Marine Le Pen, whose National Front party blames immigration from France’s former Africa colonies for its problems with Islamic radicalism.
“This will be an extraordinary demonstration . . . which must show the power and the dignity of the French people, who are going to proclaim their love of freedom and tolerance,” Valls said.
During two public appearances Saturday— in Évry, the Paris suburb that is his political base, and later in Paris’ Porte de Vincennes neighborhood, site of the Jewish supermarket where a gunman killed four customers— Valls discussed the French government’s antiterror efforts.
“We have greatly modernized our intelligence service and our lawenforcement sources. That will continue,” he said. But terrorism is “a phenomenon of unprecedented magnitude,” he said, noting that “1,200 to 1,400” jihadists are believed to currently reside in France.
Parisians flocked to Porte de Vincennes to leave bouquets and messages of condolence at the supermarket. Some declared, in a mingling of French and English, “Je suis Juiffriendly” — “I am Jewfriendly.”
In the southern city of Pau, a further 30,000 to 40,000 people staged a silent march with school pupils leading the way holding a banner emblazoned with the words: “We are all Charlie.”
“It’s a great popular movement . . . it’s beautiful and significant, infinitely precious,” said the city’s mayor, Francois Bayrou.