By Vestnik Kavkaza
In the middle of October the French police of Strasburg, the French Riviera and the Paris region arrested several people who are suspected to be involved into an Islamic militant group. The police states that these people are a small part of the powerful underground group which prepared the biggest terrorist attacks on French cities in last 20 years.
Louis Cprioli, the former head of the counter-terrorist unit of the French Internal Counter-Intelligence Service
After 2004 the terrorist threat grew, given new territories of jehad in the world. We deal with terrorism which is based on the ideology of radical Salafism. In Russia it is combined with the phenomenon of separatism in some regions. France also suffers from separatism and terrorism – for instance, Corsica. If all Corsicans were Salafi, we would have the problem similar to Russia’s. But there is a difference. Terrorists in France are successors of Muslims who came to Europe 50-60 years ago. The majority of Muslims integrated into the society, but a rather small part is involved into terrorist activity. As for financing sources, there are differences too. Since the Islamic terrorism established in France, after the elections in Algeria in January 1992, terrorism was financed locally. We had a small money traffic; and only 10 000 franks were needed for terrorist attacks in 1995. After 1992 financing is provided from the French territory by means of illegal documents, stealing cars, and other crimes. There is no state financing of terrorism.
Since the 1970s we have faced reviving of radical Salafism. It is a competition between Iran and Saudi Arabia, between Salafism, Saudi Arabia, other countries of the Persian Gulf and Iran. Iran failed to export its Islamic revolution. We had Iranian attempts on life in France, but they couldn’t turn Sunnis living in Africa and Europe into Shiites. At the same time, Saudi Arabia and Yemen through a net of universities and mosques spread the Salafi doctrine in Europe and Africa in the 1980s. When the war in Afghanistan came to an end, we saw a lot of phenomena in Europe: France, UK, Italy.
Mark Eker, expert of the French Institute for Foreign Affairs
The question on how to prevent radicalization is very important. The traditional French answer is that the state doesn’t want to interfere with religion’s affairs – a strict separation of the state and the Church. France has no certain program of prevention of radicalization. It is possible in Anglo-Saxon countries, but the French state deports the most radical imams who spread extremist ideas. As for the problem of integration and adaptation, in France French Muslims are common citizens like all others. We don’t see that there is any potential for a riot against the West, which could happen in France or in Europe. We deal with terrorism. We have to detect persons who radicalized and began to act. We have to prevent these people from committing terrorist attacks. We have effective laws which enable us to prevent several attempts to life, detect several terrorist threats in France and abroad. There were a dozen of such jehad organizations which were unveiled. At the moment the phenomenon is not large-scaled. Our task is to prevent an attack. However, the counter-terrorist system is not perfect. That is why Muhamed Imra committed his terrorist attack in Toulouse. There were seven victims.
Usage of force is considered by France as a factor which may lead to worse radicalization, rather than as a factor which could solve the problem.
If we return to terrorist attacks in Europe in last years, in Madrid, London, and Toulouse they were connected with Qatar or Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, we deal with the transnational movement, non-governmental. It is difficult to understand it. They didn’t get used to fight against transnational and non-governmental tendencies, so they didn’t know how to react. The US reacted on 9/11 by the war against terrorism. France didn’t join the doctrine of the war against terrorism, even though French military men participate in military struggle against terrorism. The US and the Western army’s actions didn’t bring the expected results in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. We see that the Libyan crisis shifted to south. The question is how to settle this difficult situation. I don’t think a military intervention is a right decision. Considering the economic crisis, France and other European countries would hardly be able to conduct one more long-term military expedition. As for economy, Qatar really invests huge sums in France, but Qatar doesn’t control French foreign policy.
