Why are recent terror attacks in France causing tensions with the Muslim community?

The country has suffered from a series of terrorist strikes over the last few years and has been hit again in recent weeks with more gruesome attacks.

A teacher was beheaded outside his school in suburban Paris after showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to his students. And three people were also killed after a knife attack in the southern French city, Nice.

French President Emmanuel Macron has spoken out strongly against the attacks and has pledged to crackdown on radical Islam. But he is being rebuked by the Muslim community who feel alienated by his response and for comments he has made about Islam.

To discuss:

• Yasser Louati is a French human rights and civil liberties activist. 
• Joav Toker is Assistant Professor, American Graduate School in Paris.
• Mohammed Shafiq is Chief Executive of the Ramadhan Foundation.
• Remi Piet is a Research Associate at the University of Miami.

 

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France and Germany are pushing to tighten E.U. borders to head off what French President Macron called the "threat of terrorism" after suspected Islamist militants killed eight people in Paris, Nice and Vienna within a month. https://t.co/KYE1F9R6MU

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 12, 2020

"If there is one lesson Macron could learn from France’s colonialist past, it is that 'if colonization destroys the colonized, it also rots the colonizer.'" — writes Asma Barlas, for #AJOpinion https://t.co/s7GXbRylxS

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 11, 2020

An appeal from Muslim intellectuals : « The boycott of France must stop » https://t.co/R54BlYWaYQ

— Le Monde (@lemondefr) November 3, 2020