Tunisian migrant Islamist terrorist, 21, who beheaded woman and killed two more Catholics in Nice church rampage - after 'Al Qaeda' press release called for 'jihad' over Hebdo cartoons
By JACK WRIGHT and CHRIS PLEASANCE and NICK FAGGE and PETER ALLEN IN PARIS FOR MAILONLINE
18:21 EDT, 29 October 2020
The Islamist terrorist who shouted 'Allahu Akbar' as he beheaded a woman and killed two others in an attack on a Catholic church in France today has been pictured.
Brahim Aoussaoui, a 21-year-old Tunisian who arrived in Europe on a migrant boat just last month, attacked worshippers with a 12-inch blade in the Notre Dame basilica in Nice, slitting the throat of an elderly woman near the church's holy water in a beheading attempt.
He hacked sacristan Vincent Loques, a 54-year-old father-of-two, to death as he prepared for the first Mass of the day, while a mother in her forties also succumbed to her injuries after seeking refuge in a nearby bar after telling paramedics: 'Tell my children that I love them'.
The assailant was shot 14 times by armed police as he screamed 'God is greatest' in Arabic during the attack and 'while under medication' as he was taken to hospital, Nice's Mayor Christian Estrosi said.
Aoussaoui arrived in Nice at around 6.30am via the railway station, where he quickly changed his clothes, Jean-Francois Ricard told journalists today. CCTV then showed him arriving in the church at 8.30am and staying there for nearly half an hour.
The assailant, born in Tunisia in 1999, entered Europe via the Italian island of Lampedusa on September 20 and arrived in Paris on October 9. The travel information came from a document on Aoussaoui from the Italian Red Cross, the state prosecutor said.
Investigators found two unused knives, a Koran and two mobile phones, in addition to a bag with some personal effects. He was unknown to French security services, Mr Ricard told a press conference.
A picture showing Aoussaoui bleeding on the floor and being treated by paramedics after he was shot by armed police outside the basilica was tweeted by the head of the respected SITE organisation.
Elsewhere a security guard was stabbed and wounded outside the French consulate in Saudi Arabia, while two other men were arrested - one while carrying a knife near a church in Sartrouville after his father reported he was about to carry out a Nice-style attack, and another who tried to board a train in Lyon carrying a long blade.
The killings, which occurred ahead of the Catholic holy day of All Saints Day on Sunday, prompted the French government to raise the terror alert level to the maximum 'emergency' level nationwide.
It followed warnings of further terrorist atrocities just days before the church rampage, after Al-Qaeda published a press release calling for 'jihad' (holy war) over newspaper Charlie Hebdo's caricatures of the Propet Mohammed.
Several times I have mentioned that radical Muslims are ticking time-bombs ready to go off. Or, you might say a hand-grenade waiting for someone to pull the pin. It doesn't take a lot of strength to pull that pin; a press release, a tweet, a proportionate response to an act of terror; anything will set them off. Radical Muslims need to be segregated from society before they terrorize it further.
President Emmanuel Macron, who quickly travelled to Nice, announced increased surveillance of churches by France's Sentinelle military patrols, to be bolstered to 7,000 troops from 3,000.
Security at schools would also be boosted, he said. 'Quite clearly, it is France that is being attacked,' Mr Macron said, and vowed the country 'will not give up on our values'.
He threw his weight behind the Catholic church, saying: 'The entire nation will stand so that religion can continue to be exercised freely in our country.' He also called for 'unity' urging people 'not to give in to the spirit of division'.
Tonight mourners attended vigils to pay tribute to the victims of the triple killing. They lit candles outside the Notre-Dame de l'Assomption Basilica in Nice and in front of the French Embassy in Berlin.
The attacks come amid fury across the Islamic world at President Macron for defending satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, and on the day that Sunni Muslims mark the Prophet's birthday.
Several Muslim-majority countries launched campaigns to boycott French products, while protesters burnt the tricolor and posters of Macron at demonstrations in Syria, Libya, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine.
Also on a day of terror for France:
A security guard at the French consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was stabbed and wounded;
A man armed with a knife was arrested in Sartrouville near a church after vowing 'to do as in Nice';
An Afghan man was arrested in Lyon trying to board a train while armed with a long knife;
Malaysia's ex-PM said that Muslims have a right 'to kill millions of French people' if Islam is insulted;
French politicians lined up to demand tougher action against what Nice's mayor branded 'Islamo-fascism';
Online jihadists celebrated the triple killing in France and Saudi Arabia today, a report by SITE said
What happened to that censorship, Twitter? Ex-Malaysian PM says
Muslims have RIGHT TO KILL millions of French
29 Oct 2020 14:17
(L) Mahathir Mohamad © Reuters / Lim Huey Teng; (R) The aftermath of a deadly stabbing in Nice, France,
October 29, 2020. © Reuters / Eric Gaillard
As knife-wielding attackers terrorized France and killed three people, Malaysia’s outspoken former prime minister said that “Muslims have a right to punish the French” with murder. His comments sparked outrage online.
France was left reeling on Thursday from a series of apparent terrorist attacks. A knife-wielding man shouted “Allahu akbar” as he slaughtered three people in a church in Nice; police in Avignon shot another knifeman dead as he lunged for them shouting the Arabic slogan; and in Saudi Arabia, police arrested a man who stabbed a guard outside the French consulate in Jeddah. All three attacks come amid a countrywide crackdown on Islamic extremism, launched after a teacher was beheaded in Paris for showing students a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed.
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad took to Twitter seemingly in a bid to defend the attackers. “Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past,” he wrote, without elaborating on which “massacres” he meant. In a rant spanning multiple tweets, Mohamad added that “the Muslims have a right to punish the French.”
Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people
for the massacres of the past
— Dr Mahathir Mohamad (@chedetofficial) October 29, 2020
Mohamad called French President Emmanuel Macron “very primitive” for blaming the teacher’s beheading on “the evil that is radical Islam,” and demanded the French government “teach their people to respect other people’s feelings,” or risk Muslims applying “the ‘eye for an eye’ law” – which he said they “by and large” have not applied yet.
Astonishing!
The former PM did include a watery condemnation of the beheading, calling it “not an act that as a Muslim I would approve.”
Mohamad has landed himself in trouble for inflammatory comments before, including his remarks on “hook-nosed” Jews and for defending his country’s prosecution of gay people. His comments on France triggered another wave of condemnation, but some pundits were also outraged at Twitter for allowing his tweets to remain online, despite censoring US President Donald Trump and banning links to damaging information about his election opponent, Joe Biden.
Twitter did attach a notice to the tweet later on Thursday, warning viewers that while it glorified violence, "it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."
During a hearing in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defended his platform’s censorship of Trump and his supporters. When asked why Twitter removed tweets by the president about mail-in voting but allowed Iran’s Ayatollah to post threats to Israel, Dorsey replied that Trump’s comments “can cause more immediate harm.”
Mohamad served twice as Malaysia’s prime minister, from 1981 to 2003 and again from 2018 until his resignation in March 2020. While his comments were notably extreme, current leadership in the country has also taken a dim view of Macron's crackdown. Earlier this week, the country’s foreign ministry summoned the French ambassador in Kuala Lumpur, telling him that Macron’s defense of the right to publish offensive cartoons constituted “inflammatory rhetoric” and “provocative acts that seek to defame the religion of Islam.”
Well, it's not like Islam needs any help defaming itself. But far too many Muslim clerics live in a delusion that Islam is a religion of peace.
Palestinian power struggle as PA police clash with supporters of Abbas rival
Palestinian power struggle as PA police clash with supporters of Abbas rival - Palestinians clash - illustration (Flash90)
Fatah internal power struggle intensifying as Palestinian police arrested supporters of exiled Palestinian strongman Mohammed Dahlan
By Paul Shindman, World Israel News
October 28, 2020
Clashes broke out in Ramallah and several refugee camps after Palestinian police broke up a rally in support of exiled Palestinian strongman Mohammed Dahlan and arrested several of his followers, Palestinian and Israeli sources reported Wednesday.
Residents of the Al-Amari camp in Ramallah staged a rally near the “Muqata” headquarters of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas chanting support for Dahlan and were met by Palestinian police in riot gear who broke up the gathering, the Palestinian news website SHFA reported.
The supporters chanted “We are your men, Dahlan,” in support of the prominent Palestinian leader who is in self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates after falling out of favor with the Palestinian leadership. Postings on social media showed youths clashing violently with Palestinian police, in one case throwing Molotov cocktails while police responded with tear gas and stun grenades and made arrests.
The controversial Dahlan, 59, had been in charge of Gaza security for Fatah, the main Palestinian political faction led by Abbas, but was away from the Gaza Strip when the Hamas terror group seized control in a bloody 2007 military coup. Many in Fatah blamed Dahlan for the loss and later accused him of having murdered Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Dahlan was accused of corruption and a trial was held in 2014, but by then he had already fled to the UAE.
Veteran Arab Affairs analyst Yoni Ben Menachem called the clashes “the battle for inheritance in the Palestinian Authority.”
Ben Menachem reported that the unrest had spread to numerous refugee camps around Judea and Samaria where Dahlan has many loyalists including the Qalandiya and Al-Amari camps just north of Jerusalem as well as the camps in Jenin and Tulkarm, where supporters demanded the release of those arrested.
With tensions rising, Ben Menachem, the former Arab affairs correspondent for Israel Radio and now a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, questioned if the clashes could spark “an intifada in the refugee camps.”
There is no clear successor to Abbas as head of the Palestinian Authority. The aging Abbas, who turns 85 next month, was elected for a four-year term in 2005 and has been in power ever since, repeatedly putting off elections.
“Dirty games in the Palestinian swamp,”
Dahlan
A Dahlan supporter interviewed by a Palestinian website friendly to Dahlan accused the Palestinian Authority of continuing its policy of arresting close associates of Dahlan in what was “political persecution of the reformist current” that Dahlan started in Fatah, Israel’s Channel 20 reported.
A senior Fatah official told Channel 20 that Abbas “and some of his associates are convinced that Dahlan, who is supported by the United Arab Emirates, is planning a coup.”
Another Fatah official said that although Dahlan has recently stated publicly that he is not interested in returning to participate in the “dirty games in the Palestinian swamp,” he is gradually working to establish a socio-political movement, one of whose bases will be in eastern Jerusalem.
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