PRESS RELEASEIn the midst of continuous and intense media coverage and political crisis management our response to the events in Toulouse and Montauban must be put in proper perspective. As in any situation of war and violence, our first obligation is that of compassion for the victims, adults and children alike. Grief and despair has touched French families, be they Jewish, Catholic, Muslim or without religion. Far from the floodlights and the excited commentary, far from hypotheses and from possible political exploitation, our hearts go out to them in an intimate encounter with our minds that alone can express our condolences and our feelings of human brotherhood. The loss of a child, a brother, a father, a husband, a sister, a friend in such circumstances is all but unbearable. In Toulouse and Montauban as well as at the graves of all innocent victims, in the West and in Africa and in the Middle East. They remind us of our shared humanity, of the horrors men commit, of both the dignity of our fragility and the legitimity of our resistance. To the victims, to all victims, go our first thoughts and compassion. And our respectful silence.
Twenty-three year-old Mohamed Merah was a familiar face in and beyond his neighborhood. People describe him as quiet, easy-going, nothing at all like an “extremist jihadi Salafist” ready to kill for a religious or political cause. His lawyer, who had previously defended him in offenses ranging from petty theft to armed robbery, had never detected even a hint of religious leanings, let alone of the Salafi stripe. He had just been tried and sentenced for theft and driving without a permit. Two weeks before the shooting, witnesses said he spent an evening in a nightclub in a very festive mood. In 2010 and 2011 he traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and earlier attempted to join the French army, which was unsuccessful , because of his criminal record. Mohamed Merah stands before us like an overgrown adolescent, unemployed, at loose ends, soft-hearted but at the same time disturbed and incoherent, as illustrated by his long hours of conversation with the police as they surrounded his apartment. An unbalanced, provocative, conscious, non-suicidal killer, are we told, who wanted, as he put it, to “teach France a lesson.”
Religion was not Mohamed Merah’s problem; nor is politics. A French citizen frustrated at being unable to find his place, to give his life dignity and meaning in his own country, he would find two political causes through which he could articulate his distress: Afghanistan and Palestine. He attacks symbols: the army, and kills Jews, Christians and Muslims without distinction. His political thought is that of a young man adrift, imbued neither with the values of Islam, or driven by racism and anti-Semitism. Young, disoriented, he shoots at targets whose prominence and meaning seem to have been chosen based on little more than their visibility. A pathetic young man, guilty and condemnable beyond the shadow of a doubt, even though he himself was the victim of a social order that had already doomed him, and millions of others like him, to a marginal existence, and to the non-recognition of his status as a citizen equal in rights and opportunities.
Mohamed—how typical the name is!—was a French citizen of immigrant background before becoming a terrorist of immigrant origin. Early on his destiny became tied to the surrounding perceptions of that origin. Now, in a final act of provocation, he has come full circle, has vanished into this constructed and distorted image to become the definitive “other.” For the French of France, there is no longer anything French about Mohamed the Muslim Arab.
That cannot, of course, excuse his actions. But let us at least hope that France can learn the lesson that Mohamed Merah had neither the intention nor the means to teach: he was French, as are all his victims (in the name of what strange logic are they differentiated and categorized by religion?), but he felt himself constantly reduced to both his origin by his skin color, and his religion by his name. The overwhelming majority of the Mohameds, the Fatimas or the Ahmeds of the suburbs and the banlieues are French; what they seek is equality, dignity, security, a decent job and a place to live. They are culturally and religiously integrated; their problem is overwhelmingly a socio-economic one. The story of Mohamed Merah today holds up to France a mirror in which it sees its face: he ends up a Jihadi without real conviction, after having been a citizen deprived of true dignity. Once more, this excuses nothing. But therein lies a crucial lesson for us all.
There was to have been a two-day suspension of the presidential election campaign. Nothing could have been more illusory. Even the suspension was political. With the election one month away, analysts and journalists are speculating who could turn the affair to maximum political advantage. Nicolas Sarkozy, posing as president of all the French, holds a winning hand. The Toulouse killings can be relied upon to shift the focus of the president election even further to the right. There will be much talk of insecurity, immigration, violent Islamism, and of Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine on the international level. Precisely where President Sarkozy is at ease. In his role as crisis manager he can encroach on the territory of the far-right Front National, and display to excess his international stature, where his record is less objectionable. The game is far from over, and the weeks to come may well prove surprising. In France as well as abroad. The opposition candidates are in holding pattern, as though paralyzed at the thought of a slip-up, while Nicolas Sarkozy is now in a position of symbolic strength, and that position carries substantial weight, even though the outcome is still in doubt.
At the sight of the maneuvering and the grand gestures, one feels an extraordinary malaise. The victims, the dead, their families, the underlying social and political questions have become secondary. Now is the time for cold calculation, for strategy. Politicians employ the power of symbols just as certainly as Mohamed Merah in his impotence struck at those symbols. Now, these themes have forced their way into the election campaign, carried along by a flood tide of emotion. Much will be said of integration, of Islamism, of Islam, of anti-Semitism, of security, of immigration, or the lost banlieues, of international relations—but it will not be the speech of democrats in tune with the people’s aspirations but populists exploiting events and mocking people’s emotions. The President plays at being the President, and his opponents seek only to prove that they are worthy pretenders. Where we might have hoped for a true debate on political issues, we must now be content with trapeze artists and jugglers, with illusionists, and with clever and cynical attempts to exploit a tragedy.
In Toulouse, France now beholds its own mirror image. The crisis has revealed that the candidates have long ago ceased to engage in politics, not simply for two days in tribute to the victims of a terrorist act, but for years. For years, in fact, real social and economic problems have been pushed aside; a substantial number of French citizens are treated as second-class citizens. Mohamed Merah was French (whose behavior was as remote from the Quranic message as it was from Voltaire’s texts). Is it so difficult to conceive and acknowledge this fact? Is it hurting so much? There indeed lies the French problem.
es ce à cette conception que votre regard critique vous a porté, croyais vous vraiment que ce jeune”délinquant” a eu le courage de tuer des enfants, moi je suis sùr qu’il est une victime d’un complot politique comme celui du 11/09 et que la vérité triomphera tot ou tard, et à ce moment j’aimerai bien que tous le monde nous épargna ses pensées simplistes, c’est le monsenge du siècle mon dieu
While we are all free to think and express what might be the reason behind what happen, we need to be careful with what we say. I am not related to any of the victims, I am Muslim, yet it makes heart ache when I hear people giving a way out to the criminals. This person might have reasons to act he acted. What he did is nevertheless criminal. What sound mind would be at the heart of a complot or take part in atrocities based on blind killing of innocents (with 3 children who barely knew the meaning of God and religion). Please, all of you who would like and have to analyse and come up with answers to what happen, take your time. The French society has weaknesses, has defaults, but doors are open for those who endeavour to make the right choices. We all blame the French society, yet we are the French society and what are doing day in day out to improve it?
As a society, we must stop blaming a community or a group of people because a criminal decides to commit crimes in their name or relate himself or herself to them. We must isolate that person and the behaviour and give them their true meaning: crimes committed by a criminal who did not consult anyone when s/he decided to act. Finally, I will be asking God in my prayers to be with and support those families who lost their loved ones, and may God help the woman who lost 2 children and a husband in a single moment. These people are the true victims. Please do not insult them and their memories by giving excuses to the criminals and removing all or part of the responsibility from them.
You can not blame an ethnic community for the deeds of one. But we readily find the underlying reason for this and other atrocities in the shared ideology/religion.
For the past 1400 years similar and much worse has happened — clearly prescribed and motivated by the religious ideology this perpetrator shares with so many others of his creed.
I spare you to quote the Koranic verses. And yes, more and more understand abrogation and why during his Meccanian period Muhammed resorted to “reveal” consiliatory verses, and why he was in a position to show the true face of Islam after the Hijra.
And this is were it’s getting sticky. Arabs and North Africans may be Muslims, Christians, Jews, Agnostics or follow the Flying Spagetthi Monster. But when did you last hear of Christian-Arabic suicide bombers or Jewish jihadis blowing up civilian trains, planes or world trade centres in Europe, America or Asia?
The common denominator and motivator will always remain Mohammedanism. And until the Islamic clerics of this world do not come together and decide on a serious re-orientation and facilitate the changes Christianity and Judaism have undergone centuries ago, those who choose to identify with Islam will be regarded for what they are. Sam Solomon’s proposed charter of Muslim understanding is an indication where a solution can be found.
Mohamedanism or mohamedism I am not sure what word to use cause it does not mean much beside for orientalistic propaganda lovers like you kind. From your response the intellectual dishonesty and hypocrisy urged me to respond. You seem to say that it all started 1400 years ago the violence of people motivated by some pseudo religious reasons. really? No other ‘religion’ have pushed people to commit heinous crimes. Really?? What about Timothy McVeigh, Kony butchering children, men and women in Africa in the name of the Chirst, the colons is Palestine that kill children and adults alike because the Talmud allows so?? And in History you really need to take some classes perhaps you will learn about the many Pharaohs and their massacres…Unfortunately Human nature when not fearing a higher Power -God – and abiding by His precepts (which when understood and practiced lead to humility and a heart full of love for his Creator therefore a heart ready to love his creations and thrive to live a life of balance and peace until the day to meet Our Creator comes.). It must sound out of space to read something like that for you who use falsehood, propaganda and blatant lies to try to attack a whole Faith and there followers. I guess only a deflated ego who can tackle its rage, anger, frustration and arrogance can grasp such a concept. The brain can be tricky sometimes because it can rationalize many things wrong and right/ true or false un-distinctively (just like what you did). Then inflated egos can be more prone to horrible thoughts and actions often inspired by the devil when the love for God and the love of God are absent from their heart) and at a more sordid level this ego can even rationalize the killing of innocent people…
On another note, I was born and lived in France for a long time and thank God have had the chance to go abroad and live there. The racism is unbearable and painful, you feel stuck ..etc.. I understand …However our parents worked hard and suffered even more racism and attacked whether under colonization ( I won’t go over the Algerian war here) or in the Metropole as workers but they were highly resilient which I often give credit for to their strong faith. To make a long story short and since you are bringing the issue of France and its Muslims youth in general ( I am not talking about Moher here in particular) I can’t help but wonder why some of this youth lack that strong sense of resiliency? Their understanding of Islam at a spiritual level is sometimes very superficial or non existent … Those aspects brings them to become very …manipulable (by any sort of people from ANY sort of political motivations). By the way, I am very doubtful that this Moher acted alone and was able to procure over 20000 euros of weapons (in FRANCE!!!!!!) I would appreciate some food for thoughts.
@ BE – Do you believe beating up utterly irrelvant strawmen or serenading ad hominems helps you make a point? This article and my comment was not about the pharaos or any other religion. Stay with the facts if you want to be taken for full measure.
This is not about race and it is not about immigrants: Islam is not a race but a construct of the mind. Free and self-thinking humans are well capable of changing their minds. You and I can not change the skin we’re in. This is why we’re inclusive, tolerant and welcoming in relation to race – but can be critical and indeed hostile towards discriminatory, violent and inhumane ideologies.
Migrants of many races, ethnicities and religious beliefs have settled and integrated well into Western European countries and countries of the Anglosphere. As long as we all live by the Golden Rule and accept the old “When in Rome…” dictum, a multi-ethnic society is a wonderful and mutally enrichering experience. But this does not mean we should tolerate the Intolerant; a free society is always at a higher risk to be exploited.
The common denominator of the vast majority of – shall we say – problem cases remains this one particular ideology, especially in countries where Islam and sharia play a relevant role in public life. Like it or not, this inconvenient fact won’t go away. It’s not unlike gravity. The sooner we accept the truth and act accordingly, the lesser will be the damage.
Lecture obligatoire aux internautes :
Je préviens les gens : évitez de saouler l’équipe, ils ont eu leur dose avec vos messages en français. Vous allez lire les 219 messages sur la version française et si votre pensée n’a pas été diffusée vous le faites.
Your analysis is right in some points, but I beg to disagree with it in others. Of course, the seven-fold murder of Toulouse reveals once again that there are people left behind by the French society. And other European societies, for that matter.
But you must note that these people are not children of the French state, but children of their parents, and members of their families and communities, notably, the Muslim community. Since those people who are allegedly deprived of certain rights and fair chances by society do not only exist in the Muslim community, but also elsewhere, the question should be asked why a Muslim chooses a different way to deal with such problems. A native French might resort to the abuse of drugs and alcohol, petty crime maybe, and thus be a danger to himself rather than to others.
It strikes me, however, that externalizing frustration by inflicting violence on others is the dubious privilege of the frustrated ones in the Muslim community. I know that the following comparison may be considered highly insulting, but you may be willing to accept it if you agree that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam and terrorist groups are merely a curse to Islam than an integral part of it.
If somebody looks after a vicious dog, not by his own choice, but because he was asked to look after it by some other person he does not want to disappoint, should that person not be responsible for the dog and keep it from mauling people in the streets? Who else than the caretaker of the dog can deal with this problem? If something happens – as has been the case in Toulouse – the police can shoot the dog, but should not the caretaker try to use his influence first, so that these things never happen?
I have been living in France until I was 18 years old and then moved on my own to UK in order to learn english. It is now almost 5 years that I am here and I had the opportunity to reflect about the problems that my country has.
The most interesting emphasis of what Tariq Ramadan outlined is that this event has shown that the problem is deeper than a young person claiming to be mujahideen from Al Quaida. Indeed, Mohammed Merrah has commited few “small” crimes but how come he came to commit few murders? One of the reason: lack of guidance. The French government likes to punish but this same government does not guide young people when they begging their journeys in commiting crimes. Therefore one possible reaction is to go to something that gives you something to live for, that gives you guidance, that gives you boundaries and objectives.
Obviously, not every young people would do that but it shows that the problem is not properly being dealt with. In fact, it is quite easy to see that there is a problem when watching French TV, it is quite easy to see that there is a construction of “Folk Evils”, that there is a propaganda against young people issued from immigration. It is even a shame that the term “issue from immigration” still exists. This event really hurts, it hurts for the people that have been killed but it hurts as well for the societal problems that it underlines. Obviously Muhammad Merrah should have never commited this crime but he is also the result of a deeper problem.
I also doubt on the legimity of the media that have specturalised the whole event: I remember watching one interview at the beggining of the story where a journalist specifically wanted to know if the murderer had algerian origins. Why? What does it bring ? This young guy was born in France.
I am just saddened about the whole situation because it is upsetting to see that nothing is going to be learnt from what has happened. Politics will utilize this event for creating a deeper “anti-islam” sentiment.
Bonjour Monsieur Ramadan,
J’écoute beaucoup de vos interventions dans des émissions télévisées en France et ailleurs, je suis souvent d’accord avec vous, je ne cautionne pas les propos de ceux qui vous accuse de double discours, je vois bien la manipulation dans leurs explications… J’ai lu quelques uns de vos ouvrages et j’admire votre façon de vous exprimer et de vous adresser à vos adversaires. Mais là je ne suis pas d’accord avec vous, le raccourcis est un peu facile : accuser la france d’avoir fait de Mohamed Merah, ce tueur, non…
Mon père a été beaucoup plus malheureux que lui, il a vécu dans la rue “enfant”, fils d’immigré aussi, il lui est arrivé de voler quelques fruit pour manger mais il n’a agressé personne il est parvenu a avoir une bonne situation grace à l’école, il a été un honnête homme…
Mohamed Merah est un délinquant, un psychopathe comme il y en a d’autres, non musulmans et non issus de l’immigration…
C’est “sa” responsabilité et non pas celle de la société.
Cordialement.
vous dîtes des vérités mais à mon sens vous omettez une chose importante.
Contrairement à ce que vous laissez entendre, Mohamed Merah ne tue pas indistinctement d’autres français. Dans sa logique meurtrière il vise deux “institutions” : l’armée française (pour la punir des ses interventions dans des pays musulmans) et des juifs. Précisément dans une logique d’assimilation de TOUS les juifs, quitte à ce qu’il s’agisse d’enfants innocents.
L’islam et ses représentants les plus éclairés, je suis convaincu qu’il y en a bien plus que les media ne le relais, gagneraient considérablement à pointer cela du doigt sans compromis et avec un certain courage.
Les juifs de diaspora étouffent d’être pris en otage d’esprits fragiles (la responsabilité de la France est engagée mais ce n’est évidemment pas l’unique cause vous le savez) sous le prétexte de revendications d’un conflit complexe, datant de dizaines d’années, et surtout se situant très loin de Paris ou Toulouse…
Je suis le premier à dire que l’amalgame un musulman = un terroriste est hautement toxique, il est aujourd’hui temps pour les musulmans de dénoncer l’exportation du conflit israëlo-palestinien en France et de se montrer ferme avec tout acte de racisme au non de cette cause
Imagine if we replace the French murderer and replace him with 2 American murders from a different time:
Bonnie and Clyde. Were the “victims” of the hard times they grew up in? Were they really “soft hearted”? as the author writes? They may have enjoyed some celebrity status as they were-after all-stealing money form the ‘;evil banks’ which helped make so many mid-westerners lives miserable. But then Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow did not ride up to a school and hold children up by their hair to shoot them in the face and head. And even though they did not the Nation as a whole excepted nothing less then their being gunned down in cold blood for the animals that they were. And they were cold blooded killers without ‘soft’ hearts. Just as Mohammed stole and pushed guns in peoples faces to rob them and THEN went on to shot 3 soldiers before searching for a Jewish School to kill little tiny children. I can not belive this essay reads like an apology of the worst and most cowardly sort from somebody who is desperately trying to convince a large part of the gullible public that what really happened is NOT what it looks like. But it IS. its EXACTLY what it looks like. A vengeful 23 yr old MAN (not a demented teen) shot 3 soldiers for ‘killing his brothers’ and he screamed God is Great after he did. Then he waited and searched for the next victims. They could have been anybody but they werent. He chose little Jewish children. He didnt choose to shoot up a Muslim school though if he did it would be just as sick. The point is-he chose who he chose and he did what he did. I (and I hope many) spit on his grave and am not impressed by ANY of the apologists out there looking to redeem this sick F of an individual
This author apologizes for all aspects of this MAN- he is a 23yr old man -his actions.
Apologize for his “soft-hearted ignorance
apologized for his NOT recognising that he selected muslim soldiers and then little Jewish babies to shoot in the head and apoligized for it NOT being mohammeds plan all along to do so.
Apologize for his circumstance as a minority.
In the 20s in the US ther were two teens who embarked on a murderous spree of killing and armed robery. some Americans saw then as modern day robin hoods though they did NOT share any of what they stole. The killed without mercy even if they did not really “mean to”
In the end-most american got juts what they wanted. The were gunned down like the reckless out-of-control murderers that they were. There were NO apologies for Bonni and Clyde and I use this because I know the French have a ‘thing’ about them oin the culture. But they were armed and they were wanton murderers. The rest was all juts BS an PR to make copy, sell print, make movies and sell a song.
May this one particular Mohammed NOT REST IN PEACE
“He attacks symbols : the army, and kills Jews, Christians and Muslims without distinction.”
You could not be more wrong, he attacked those children precisely because they were Jewish. There is a huge problem with Islam, my friend, and until you recognize this and deal with it we can expect to see more useless violence on the part of useless young men like this filth.
I’m sorry but he told to the RAID that he didn’t intend to kill jews at first intent, and that he didn’t kill them because of their so-called infidels status but ” to avenge palestinian children” if we consider the french authorities’ narrative to be faithful, so the symbol being targeted here is not Islam versus Judaism or any other particular religion but a symbol that has to deal with the too-long enduring palestinian conflict- that reach every conscience in every part of the world- that being said these criminal acts should be met with an absolute condemnation without exempting the killer from its responsibilities. But the responsibilities lay also on other people’s shoulders, that is the authorities that because of political, intellectual and philosophical oppression of people like Tariq Ramadan in France gives full coverage to extremists (either extremists bowing in front of CRIF (a very powerful israeli lobby in france) or on the other side in front of apologists of a completely distorted ideology of liberation whatsoever. Because there is no room for muslims thinkers that are calling for the intellectual and political emancipation of people coming from the ancient french colonies. We’re still waiting for our French Galloway and this time is not to come soon.
You write: “and earlier attempted to join the French army, which was unsuccessful , because of his criminal record. ” I think this statement is wrong. sorry. He spent one night at the legion and went on his own. As far and as much as I know. Please do check your statements before writing them down (sorry, I’m a librarian!)
Lucile