French defense minister threatens ‘sanctions’ against ex-generals behind open letter blasting Islamism and ‘suburban hordes’
27 Apr, 2021 12:09
FILE PHOTO: French soldiers patrol the streets of Bretigny-sur-Orge, near Paris, France, November 2020.
© Benoit Tessier / Reuters
French Defense Minister Florence Parly has said that former high-ranking military personnel may be punished for signing a letter urging the president to stop the looming disintegration of the country and possible civil war.
The letter, which had caused a stir in the media, was published in the conservative ‘Valeurs Actuelles’ news magazine on April 21. The appeal was signed by around 20 retired generals along with “a hundred senior officers and more than a thousand soldiers,” the magazine said.
Striking an ominous tone, generals asked French President Emmanuel Macron and the government to save France from what they said was a creeping disintegration, and to defend the country against “Islamism and the hordes of the suburbs,” as well as against “masked individuals” that attack businesses and police. They also warned that “certain 'anti-racism’ and ‘decolonial theories'” sow divisions in society with the goal of starting a “race war,” and that the current political climate could ultimately lead to a civil war in France, unless something is urgently done to stop it.
Parly accused the former generals of “calling for a kind of insurrection or, at least, creating a climate of division.” She told France Info radio that the opinions expressed in the letter were “an insult launched at thousands of soldiers.”
Huh?
One doesn’t rub salt into wounds. When you are responsible, you don’t stir up divisions, though these cannot be denied. We mustn’t exaggerate them either, and we shouldn’t seek to make them bigger.
The minister argued that even retired military personnel were bound by the duty to refrain from voicing political opinions in public, and the actions of the letter’s signatories were unacceptable and irresponsible. Parly said she has directed the Chief of the Defense Staff to apply “sanctions” against the ex-officers.
“The military statute, which is known to everyone, permits the military to have opinions, but limits their expression to the private sphere,” Parly said.
Like you said, Minister, it is known to everyone, and yet, these senior soldiers felt it was important enough to state it publicly. Apparently, it was necessary because you are not recognizing the real danger France is in. I would suggest you ask those retired soldiers what they would do to rectify the problem.
The leader of the right-wing National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, endorsed the message of the letter, saying that it was a duty of patriots to fight for the “salvation of the country.” She invited the authors to support her party and her candidacy in the 2022 presidential election.
Parly has condemned Le Pen’s comments, saying that the Armed Forces must stay neutral in domestic affairs. “Wanting to politicize the military is an insult to their mission,” she wrote, in an op-ed in the newspaper Liberation, adding that politicization of the army will “weaken France.”
France is already weak. Refusing to admit that is your biggest problem.
The discussion over radicalism was reignited in France after a string of high-profile Islamic terrorist attacks last year. Last week, a Tunisian national, who was living in France and radicalized by watching jihadist videos, attacked a police station in Rambouillet near Paris and killed a female police employee.
Danish police arrest 6 men suspected of bankrolling and joining Islamic State
27 Apr, 2021 13:55
FILE PHOTO. Danish police in Copenhagen, Denmark © Reuters / Ritzau Scanpix
Police in Denmark have arrested six men, aged 27 to 35, on suspicion of financing the Islamic State terrorist group and aiding its activities in Syria.
Two of the suspects were detained in the cities of Aarhus and the capital Copenhagen after they traveled to Syria to join IS in the summer of 2014, police said in a statement on Tuesday.
One of that pair, a 29-year-old, was also said to have returned to Syria the following spring to work for the terrorist organization again.
Five of the suspects have been accused of financing terrorism, including the 29-year-old, who allegedly sent money to IS from Aarhus between 2013 and 2017.
Police said they believe the other four detainees acted as intermediaries by wiring the cash to IS at the man's request.
Five of the six men will attend a court hearing on Tuesday, where a judge will decide on their continued detention.
The arrests were carried out as part of an operation by the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) in coordination with police in East Jutland and Copenhagen.
In March, PET released an assessment of Denmark's terrorist threat level, saying the risk "remains significant."
Militant Islamists continue to pose the primary terrorist threat to Denmark, PET said, particularly those who sympathize with – and are inspired by – IS and Al-Qaeda.
Two Spanish documentary makers killed in Burkina Faso, PM Sanchez confirms,
Irish journalist reported missing
27 Apr, 2021 15:38
FILE PHOTO. Police officer in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso © AFP / ISSOUF SANOGO
A pair of Spanish journalists have been killed in Burkina Faso, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said after they were reportedly kidnapped by terrorists while making a documentary about poaching in the African country.
"The worst news is confirmed. All our love for the family and friends of David Beriain and Roberto Fraile, murdered in Burkina Faso," Sanchez said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya earlier told reporters that her department was still waiting for official confirmation from Burkina Faso, but that two of the bodies found were "most likely" those of the Spaniards.
Terrorists reportedly kidnapped the pair, along with an Irish reporter, who is still missing, according to AFP. This has not been officially confirmed.
The three men were said to be on an anti-poaching patrol with soldiers and rangers in the Arli National Park in eastern Burkina Faso.
Their convoy reportedly came under attack by Islamist militants who apparently shot and wounded two foreigners and two soldiers.
Kidnappings are a common threat in the area, with "terrorists, bandits and jihadists" known to operate there, Gonzalez Laya said.
Swiss Ban on Full Veil Raises Questions and Riles Islamists
Hany Ghoraba
Algemeiner
A Swiss government building. Photo: The Federal Council of Switzerland.
In an effort to curtail extremism, Switzerland last month voted to ban women wearing the burqa or niqab (full veil). The national referendum passed March 7 with 52 percent of the vote. Under the new restriction, people cannot completely cover their face in public areas.
Exceptions may be allowed in places of worship.
Switzerland is the latest European country to impose restrictions on the full veil, joining France, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Bulgaria, and the Netherlands.
The referendum was pushed by the populist Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which argued that a vote for banning the veil was a step against extremism. It described the referendum as “a strong symbol against radical Islam.”
The Swiss Parliament’s lower house backed a face veil ban in 2016, following neighboring European countries such as France, as a curb on radicalism in the wake of terrorist attacks. But to become law, it needed voter approval.
Muslims represent just 5.2 percent of the Swiss population, according federal statistics. But Swiss officials are wary of rising levels of extremism in the country. Swiss police conducted raids against extremists in 2019. Switzerland’s intelligence service estimated that 92 jihadists have traveled from Switzerland to Iraq, Syria, and Somalia since 2013 to join terrorist groups.
Last November, a 28-year-old Swiss woman attacked two women in a Lugano department store with a knife, seriously injuring one. Officials described it as “a suspected terrorist-motivated attack.”
Islamist groups expressed frustration about the referendum.
“Today’s decision opens old wounds, further expands the principle of legal inequality, and sends a clear signal of exclusion to the Muslim minority,” stated the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland in a statement, adding that it would challenge the decision in court. It described the vote as “Islamophobically related.”
“Switzerland has voted to ban the niqab. In a land where barely 0.00001 % of its citizens wear a face-covering, there is no question that the entire public vote & discussion was yet another European attempt to ban an iconic symbol associated with Islam. It’s not about the niqab,” tweeted Islamic theologian and scholar Yasir Qadhi, insinuating that ban is an attack on Muslims, even those who do not wear the veil.
No, it is an attack against radicalized Muslims. Who else would choose to be invisible?
Turkish state media heavily criticized the ban as “Islamophobic.” Pakistani news outlet Dawn said the vote “helps propel the agenda of far-right parties in Europe, who see Muslims, people of colour and racial minorities as ‘outsiders’ trying to change the continent’s ‘pure’ culture.”
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)’s human rights board condemned the Swiss ban in a statement, saying it was “grossly discriminatory, disproportionate, contrary to ideals of pluralism and tolerance” and “violating international and regional human rights obligations.”
Spoken by The Organization of Islamic Cooperation!!!!
But some Swiss lawmakers defended the decision. “In Switzerland, our tradition is that you show your face. That is a sign of our basic freedoms,” said Wobmann.
Yet it’s not just Islamists who objected to the results of the referendum. “If the intention of this is in any way to protect women’s rights it fails abjectly,” said Cyrielle Huguenot, head of women’s rights at Amnesty International Switzerland. “Instead, this proposes to sanction women for their choice of clothing and in so doing undermines the freedoms Switzerland purports to uphold.”
So, Mrs Radical Islamist goes to the closet in the morning and decides which black full-length robe she is going to make herself invisible with today. "Let me see... the black one, or the black one, or maybe the black one, that looks real sporty!!!"
Other concerns came from Swiss tourism industry experts. “A burqa ban would damage our reputation as an open and tolerant tourism destination,” said Nicole Brändle Schlegel of HotellerieSuisse, an alliance of hoteliers and tourism professionals.
But the wearing of the niqab is associated with the spread of fundamentalist Islamist movements like Salafism or Wahabbism. Salafists believe that the physical appearance of a believer is an integral part of abiding by the tenets of the Islamic faith.
Yet despite his conservative stances on many issues, Al Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb — the highest authority in Sunni Islam — has described the niqab as optional.
“The women who wear a niqab must never say [she] is wearing it because it is required by (Islamic) Sharia. It is like wearing or taking off a ring,” al-Tayeb told Egypt’s Extra News TV.
In 2007, al-Tayeb said the “niqab is forbidden during prayer and forbidden for women during Hajj (pilgrimage).”
In Muslim majority countries where the niqab is worn by more women, male and female criminals can sometimes use the face coverings to conceal their identities.
North African bans on niqab
Morocco, which has a 99 percent Muslim population, banned the burqa and niqab in 2017, as a result of growing security concerns and to curb extremism. Algeria followed suit and banned wearing the niqab in government buildings in 2018. Tunisia banned the niqab in government buildings in 2019 after a suicide bombing in which a terrorist reportedly used a niqab as a disguise.
The niqab security threat is more profound in countries like Egypt, where many women wear it. However, the Egyptian parliament failed to approve a ban in 2018 citing public freedoms.
“Some of the terrorist attacks that happened in the past were carried out by people wearing the niqab,” said Mohamed Abu Hamed, a former Egyptian MP. He proposed an alternative bill banning the niqab in government intuitions, schools, and universities. The bill didn’t see the light of day but the niqab was banned for faculty members at Cairo and Ain Shams universities in 2020.
The fact that some Muslim-majority countries have taken similar actions should blunt some criticism of the Swiss referendum. Although the niqab is not widely worn in Switzerland, it remains a tool for extremists and poses security challenges. And influential Muslim scholars, including Al Azhar’s grand imam, describe it as optional for Muslim women.
Swiss voters see much of Europe grappling with the results of a laissez-faire attitude toward radical Islamist ideology at home. That likely influenced their decision.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism. Senior Fellow Hany Ghoraba is an Egyptian writer, political and counter-terrorism analyst at Al Ahram Weekly, author of Egypt’s Arab Spring: The Long and Winding Road to Democracy and a regular contributor to the BBC.
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