Muslim jihadists are on a rampage in France in spite of massive police and military presence. On Sept. 25, 18-year-old Ali Hassan viciously attacked with a meat cleaver two people that he mistakenly thought worked for Charlie Hebdo, a magazine that published satirical caricatures of Muhammad in 2011 and 2012. Hassan, a refugee from Pakistan, had been watching videos calling for further jihadist action against Hebdo (“Before Attack,” Daily Herald, Oct. 6, 2020). On Oct. 16, a history teacher was beheaded near his school in Paris by an 18-year-old who was subsequently shot to death by police. He was a Chechen who had recently been granted refugee status in France. His grandfather, parents, brother, and other suspects were arrested (“Suspect in teacher’s beheading,” CBS News, Oct. 17, 2020), and a mosque was shut down for fomenting jihad (“French mosque closed,” The Hill, Oct. 20, 2020). The teacher, Samuel Paty, had used the Charlie Hebdo caricatures of Muhammad in his class to illustrate liberty of expression. Minutes after the attack, before being shot to death, the attacker posted a photo of Paty’s decapitated head with a message, “I have executed one of the dogs from hell who dared to put Muhammad down.” On Oct. 29, Brahim Aouissaoui shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is Great”) before beheading one worshiper, stabbing two others to death, and wounding others in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Nice (“Catholics beheaded by Islamist,” Catholic Arena, Oct. 29, 2020). The murderer, who had recently arrived from Tunisia, was shot multiple times by police but survived. On Jan. 7, 2015, two Muslim men aligned with Al-Qaeda killed 12 workers and injured 11 others at the offices of Charlie Hebdo. A couple of days later, an Islamic jihadist murdered four Jews in the Île-de-France region (which includes Paris). The terrorists were shot dead by police. On July 14, 2016, 86 people were killed and 458 injured by a Tunisian man who drove a 19-ton cargo truck through a crowd in Nice on Bastille Day. The murderer, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, who was aligned with the Islamic State, was shot dead by police. On July 26, 2016, 84-year-old priest Jacques Hamel’s throat was slit during morning mass in Rouen in northern France. The terrorists, who operated with the Islamic State, were shot dead by police.
(Friday Church News Notes, November 6, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)