French Unity; Je Suis Charlie

13 January 2015 | 19:13 Code : 1943055 Editorial General category
An essay by Seyyed Mohammad Sadegh Kharrazi, Iran’s former ambassador to France
French Unity; Je Suis Charlie

On January 7, 2015, France was confronted with bitter terrorist operations and the office of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo came under a bloody attack which shocked the whole country. But this wasn’t the end of this incident and similar operations continued during the next couple of days. On the 8th of January, two cars exploded in Villejuif.

Later, a policewoman was killed in Paris’ suburbs. On the 9th of January, friends of the two terrorist brothers who were the main culprits of the attack against the satirical weekly attacked a Jewish supermarket in Porte de Vincennes and took innocent people hostage. This incident ended at five o’clock and the hostage-taker and a few people were killed. Meanwhile the Kouachi brothers were under siege in a publishing house and were later killed by police forces. All forces in France were in a state of alert and 1800 special forces entered the scene in this incident.

France’s socialist president has ordered the Charles de Gaulle warship to move towards the Middle East; a symbolic move which would strengthen the nationalistic spirit of France. During these past few days, the relatives of the terrorists were all detained so that France’s intelligence officers would be able to gain information from the terrorists, their affiliation and ideology. There is no doubt that the number of terrorists and detainees will be more than expected.

The hostage-takers and the terrorists have sought to show themselves as symbols of martyrdom who will enter heaven by taking such measures. Inspired by religious misinterpretations and radical conceptions, they have attempted to deceive public opinion. What was said in the introduction was the description of what happened between January 7th to 9th 2015 in France. The elites, politicians and political parties of France and all European governments have expressed their support for the socialist government of France. Of course, except the radical rightist party of Marine le Pen which has radical views against the Jihadists, Muslims and religion and have a critical opinion against the policies of the government . They believe that the law of execution must be reinstated in France.

The government of Mr. Hollande is under severe conditions right now. During the past elections, the seats of the provinces, cities and parliament were allocated to the socialists and severe criticisms are made against France’s socialist government.

Although this incident was very bitter and horrific, it helped the present situation of the socialist government of Francois Hollande and created unity among the elites, freedom-seekers, people, parties and other European governments. On Sunday January 11th, France witnessed the biggest demonstrations of its history. Alongside the people, many European leaders participated in these demonstrations. Now Hollande prepares himself to take advantage of the biggest challenge of today’s France which is the security and unity of Europe for a better future for himself.

This event was a blessing for the government which was going down and has attracted all pillars of France’s nationalism. But France sees itself in serious confrontation with radical blind terrorism, thus, at least for several years, the most important issue will still be power, security, national convergence, and international and European consensus. What is important is the behavior of the terrorist groups which are now pouring into Europe.

Since some years ago, the radical forces of ISIS which are supported by some Arab countries and intelligence organizations have brought darkness and misery to the people of the region and the result of the indifference towards this sinister phenomenon of terrorism has been instability and insecurity. The emergence of terrorism in Paris is a serious sign of the threats against the security of Europe. The United Nations, European Union, European Parliament and the EU’s political and security council must cut off their bilateral relations with those countries which support the terrorism of al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Now many among the French elite including the Muslims, while respecting the freedom of expression, human rights and democratic values, seek to achieve serious convergence against terrorism which has targeted the freedom of expression. All supporters of freedom of expression have decided to publish Charlie Hebdo in the coming week with one million copies in order to safeguard the limits of democracy and freedom of expression.

During the past few days, three important mosques in France have been attacked. Today, Islam is the second official religion in France. The first, second and third generations of Muslim immigrants have social status as the most powerful minority of the French society. They have expressed their sympathy with the families of the victims. The French government is well aware of the fact that power and security will be achieved through common and collective efforts. The most important challenge of France today is the challenge of the regions which are under the dominance of this country and where terrorism is spreading.

Muslim thinkers have a harsh stance against the radical measures of terrorism and based on their legal and historical reasons believe that Muslims, like the Christians and the Jews, have a French identity. They have accepted the values of France. These Muslims state that they should not have to condemn these incidents any time they happen and they bring an example for their logic. They state that as the church and Christian community did not have to condemn the massacre of blacks by the Ku Klux Klan, they should not have to dissociate themselves from these horrific incidents any time they occur.

Nevertheless, the cultured people of France need to seriously review their methods of fighting against threats. The government, people and elites of each society must realize that their basic task is to fight against the threats which are posed on the lives, belongings and dignity of the people. Today security is a global virtue. There is no such thing as a good or bad terrorist. Terrorism is bad and needs to be fought against for the security of all people whether in the US, Africa, Europe or Asia or in the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities. If terrorism was seriously considered as a threat, today we would not have witnessed this situation in Europe. The fight against radicalism which has taken religion as its hostage needs intelligence in behavior and action.

tags: france isis terrorist