France's Hollande vows more security after raids on Islamic network

French police special forces carried out a series of early-morning raids across France to dismantle what authorities called a radical Islamist network, resulting in 11 arrests and one death.

|
Christian Hartmann/Reuters
French President Francois Hollande arrives for a statement on the steps of the Elysee Palace, after a meeting with the heads of France's Jewish Associations, in Paris, October 7. An Islamist suspected of a grenade attack on a Jewish market was shot and killed by police in the northeastern city of Strasbourg on Saturday and 11 others detained in what prosecutors called a "vast anti-terrorist operation".

French President François Hollande pledged on Sunday to increase security around synagogues and introduce tougher anti-terrorism measures, a day after a series of police raids dismantled a radical Islamist network that targeted Jews.

Seeking to calm the fears of France's Jewish community, the largest in Europe, Mr. Hollande invited seven leaders of Jewish groups to the presidential palace where he promised support to fight a rash of anti-Semitic attacks.

"I have reaffirmed that the state will not compromise in fighting racism and anti-Semitism. Nothing must be tolerated," Hollande told reporters outside the presidential palace.

Tensions are high in the Jewish community over a series of attacks and threats. They have ranged from death threats against the chief rabbi of Lyon, to an attack with a hammer and iron bars on three young Jewish men.

On Saturday evening, blank bullets were fired from a car at a synagogue in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil while worshippers were inside.

In the worst such violence, three children and a rabbi were shot dead in March outside a Jewish school in Toulouse by a radical Islamist inspired by al Qaeda, who also killed three soldiers in a 10-day rampage.

"After the Toulouse tragedy, we would have hoped and thought there would be an end to the anti-Semitic atmosphere in our country. Unfortunately, anti-Semitic acts have multiplied," Joel Mergui, president of the Paris Central Consistory, told reporters after meeting Hollande.

Since he was elected in May, the Socialist president has proved to be tough on law-and-order issues.

But he remains caught between the need to crack down on crime and campaign promises to be more inclusive than his conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, whose often harsh rhetoric on Islamist issues offended many Muslims.

Surveillance

Hollande said on Sunday the government would introduce to parliament a bill to better combat terrorism.

The legislation would allow police to arrest people suspected of terrorism-related activity outside France's borders, and allow police to access the emails or Internet communications of potential terrorists.

Hollande also said places of worship would receive increased surveillance and protection.

On Saturday, police special forces carried out a series of early-morning raids across France to dismantle what authorities called a radical Islamist network.

Eleven people were arrested and police shot dead a 33-year-old man they said was one of two men who lobbed a grenade inside a Jewish market in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles in September, wounding one.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls told TF1 television on Saturday terrorist threat existed in France, and said he did not rule out more arrests related to the Sarcelles investigation.

The head of Jewish umbrella group CRIF, Richard Prasquier, called radical Islam a "monstrous ideology".

"Being indulgent towards radical Islamism is the same as being indulgent towards Nazism," he told reporters.

Following his meeting with Jewish leaders, Hollande met the head of the French Muslim Council, Mohammed Moussaoui, and said that scapegoating the community would not be tolerated.

"French Muslims must not suffer from radical Islam. They are also victims," Hollande said in a statement.

Mr. Moussaoui similarly released a statement in which he pledged solidarity from France's Muslim community and made a distinction between those engaged in anti-Jewish attacks and the vast majority of Muslims.

The Grand Mosque of Paris said French Muslims must "be aware of the worrying situation" of young Muslims involved in terrorist groups and said religious leaders should find solutions to avoid the spread of activity "contrary to the values of the Republic and the humanist principles of Islam".

France's 5 million Muslims are the largest Islamic minority in Europe.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to France's Hollande vows more security after raids on Islamic network
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1007/France-s-Hollande-vows-more-security-after-raids-on-Islamic-network
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe