Security and Counterterrorism
The Death of Samuel Paty : Its Consequences for Laicite and for Islam
The awful decapitation on October 16th of Samuel Paty, a 47 years high school teacher, has created great emotion in French society. While the rallies to honor Samuel Paty seemed to unite the whole country and to bring out some important features of French values, e.g. the evocation of Camu’s debt to his teacher[1], the…
Machete Attack in Paris in Front of Charlie Hebdo Former Office
Friday September 25th, a man has stabbed two people in the city centre of Paris. The assailant was deliberately targeting the weekly French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, famous to have endured a terror attack five years ago when 12 members of the editorial office were killed and several others injured.[1]The aggressor seemingly ignored that Charlie Hebdo’s office…
The new France Minister of Interior: “My first name is Gerald, my second is Moussa”
French President Emmanuel Macron proceeded to a ministerial reshuffle last week and nominated Gérald Darmanin as the new Minister of Interior. It is important to note, that in the French political system, the Minister of the interior is in charge of the cults and religious affairs. The early days of Darmanin’s mandate have been marked…
Trials of former IS fighters in Germany: Opportunities and pitfalls
German prosecutors are getting creative in their attempts to bring the crimes of the Syrian civil war to court. This includes bringing charges against former security officials of Bashar al-Asad’s regime for war crimes and crimes against humanity. And it involves attempting to bring the fighters of the so-called ‘Islamic State’ (IS) to justice. Charges…
10 children of French jihadists have been repatriated
Sunday June the 21st, according to the French minister of Foreign Affairs, 10 jihadists’ children were repatriated. Those children were detained in camps in the northeast part of Syria under the control of Kurdish forces. Since the collapse of the Islamic State and the withdrawal of US forces in 2019, France has repatriated 28 children…