France risks becoming a place where radical violence is not the exception, but rather a norm that is part of everyday life, at a time when radical Islam is on the march around the globe, experts said.
“France absolutely risks terrorism being seen as the new normal,” Colin P. Clarke, an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation, told Borderless News Online.
“About 1,800 French citizens have traveled to fight in Iraq and Syria, so the ideology of Salafi jihadism is clearly entrenched within elements of French society,” he said, noting a form of Islam espoused by radicals.
“Cities like Paris, Marseille, Toulouse and Nice have been linked to terrorist plots and attacks for the past several years,” he added.
France’s efforts to prevent terror attacks are clearly not working, and Clarke said the French security forces are overwhelmed and clearly lack the resources and manpower to track, monitor and surveil the universe of potential terror suspects within the country.
So why is France a target? One argument is that France’s Arab population is angry over ill treatment in their adopted country and a sense that success is reserved only for native French. But some experts point out that terrorists are not freedom fighters who aim to use violence to get better treatment. Rather, ISIS and other terror groups espouse a twisted version of Islam that preaches that such violence will bring about a new empire governed by draconian laws and wrath-of-God vengeance against dissidents. It’s not equality that the terrorist want. Rather, they want to be in charge, and want to kill anyone who stands in their way.
The latest of many attacks happened last week, when a terrorist drove a large truck headlong into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day – the country’s national holiday. The attack killed more than 80 people, and came straight from the infamous Inspire magazine – al Qaeda’s publication that teaches terrorism tactics and preaches radical Islamist ideology.
The hit came on the heels of several ISIS attacks around the globe over the past month, including a massive bombing in Iraq, a suicide bombing in Istanbul and an attack on a gay nightclub in the United States.
The death toll from all these incidents combined is in the hundreds, and perhaps worst of all, France and other nations seem at a loss to prevent the next one, leaving them sitting ducks for the next attack.
That’s because it’s very difficult to stop lone wolf attacks, of which France is seeing more and more. Those are strikes carried out by an individual not formally connect to ISIS, but perhaps heavily influenced by the group’s online propaganda. A lone wolf might also be in touch with actual terror operatives online who provide advice and guidance, but who are not physically involved in the attack.
The violence in France comes at a time when attacks around the world are ramping up, perhaps as a Ramadan offensive, as the Muslim holy month has just ended and extremists may have chosen that month to make a point. The attacks are also perhaps a bid for ISIS to remain relevant at time when the U.S.-led coalition is slowly squeezing the terror group out of the vast swath of territory it had overtaken in Iraq and Syria.
But whatever the case, the attacks are increasing, and at least in France, there seems little the government can do.
Clarke said he thinks the effort to counter ISIS’ nihilistic narrative is something that should be shared, and France certainly has a role in this effort.
This at a time when the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS in the Middle East is not focused enough on the soft side of fighting terror, like educating people not that such violence is not sanctioned in the Muslim religion.
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