The following day Christophe and I taught at the University of Paris X in Nanterre. Each year the Campus Security Department hosts my Reality-Based courses in order to run their people through the program.
On Monday, August 3, when I was introducing myself to the students I told them that they would be learning how to deal with the most common violent crimes. I also told them that the last course, Terrorism Survival on August 7th, would prepare them for acts of terrorism in France or if they were on vacation. I said to my class, “Don’t be under any illusion that terrorism is finished in Europe. Just in the last week there have been two attacks by ETA in Spain. You French are also targets. The French government is building a military base in the Persian Gulf to protect French assets, you have troops in Afghanistan, and President Sarkozy has recently said that the burqa that Islamic women wear are not welcomed in the French Republic. This makes Al Qaeda angry. There will be future acts of terrorism in France.”
The next day after my statement, August 4th, French newspaper Le Parisien printed an article that Christophe Besse found stated the following:
Al Qaeda threatens France
The North African branch of Al Qaeda threatened to take vengeance on France after President Nicolas Sarkozy declared on June 22nd that the burqa (scarf that covers the head of Islamic females) was not welcomed in the French Republic.
“We will take revenge on France and her interests by every means at our disposal for the honor of our daughters and our sisters,” said North African Al Qaeda leader Abou Moussab Abdoul Wadoud. “Yesterday it was the hijab (full head and body covering) and today it’s the niqab (burqa),” he continued.
Approximately 10% of the population of France is Islamic and there have been tremendous tensions between the two cultures in the past few years. Many in the French government, and Catholic citizens at large, fear that their country can degrade into a Bosnia or Kosovo type situation in the future.
Of course continuing tensions has lead to acts of terrorism and riots in the recent past throughout France. I was teaching in France in 2007 when there we riots in Paris every night, and 400 towns and cities experienced attacks. President Sarkozy has been a very powerful figure since taking office and the French government has aggressively fought the War on Terrorism. Although Europe has always been a target of Al Qaeda, the latest events make France even more so.
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