Paris was hit by two sets of terrorist attacks this year, the first in January and the second in November, making the French capital a new target in the Islamist terrorism that has affected countries throughout the Middle East and has now set its sights on Europe. In January, 17 people died when Islamist gunmen opened fire at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and at a kosher supermarket in Paris. The deaths, the work of French nationals of North African descent Cherif and Said Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly, a French national of West African descent, shocked the world and led to a march of one and a half million people through central Paris in protest at the attacks and in solidarity with the victims. Thousands of banners read “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) as a way of expressing solidarity with those who died, along with others reading “Je suis musulman” (I am Muslim) and “Jihadistes, arrêtez de caricature le Prophète” (Jihadists, stop caricaturing the Prophet). The magazine had been attacked by Islamist extremists because of its publication of cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohamed, while the kosher supermarket was at least in part targeted in retaliation for Israeli actions against the Palestinians. Following the January attacks, questions were asked about the reasons behind the radicalisation of some members of France's young Muslim population, leading them to carry out extreme acts of violence, and what can be done to treat the problem at its roots and not simply by repression. Many such young French extremists have links with Islamist terror groups abroad, including the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria and Iraq, and have received training and weapons from such groups. Both the Kouachi brothers who carried out the Charlie Hebdo attacks and Coulibaly had such links and have been shown to have trained with them abroad. However, the January attacks, shocking as they were as a direct assault on the freedom of expression in France, were overshadowed by a second set of Islamist terrorist attacks, this time on 13 November. Eight Islamist gunmen and suicide-bombers claiming affiliation with the IS group attacked bars and restaurants in the east of Paris along with the Bataclan, a music venue popular with young people, in horrific acts of violence that killed 130 people and left over 350 wounded. At the same time, three gunmen blew themselves up outside the Stade de France football stadium in Saint-Denis north of Paris during a match that was being attended by French President François Hollande. Seven of the eight gunmen blew themselves up either in suicide attacks or during shoot-outs with police. Most of the men have been identified as French nationals of North African origin, and most are believed to have travelled to Syria for training with IS. Since the attacks took place, information has been appearing in the French and international press on the backgrounds of the eight men who carried out the attacks, with a depressingly familiar picture emerging. Most were born in France, not always in particularly deprived circumstances, usually in small towns or city suburbs. Most seem to have had ordinary childhoods before falling into delinquency and then becoming progressively more and more radicalised. The criminal backgrounds of the terrorists, all young men in their late twenties or early thirties, drew attention once again to the path from “delinquency to radicalisation to terrorism,” as Hollande put it in a speech to the French parliament in the week following the November attacks. “It is painful to say so, but these were French citizens who killed other French citizens,” Hollande said. “Individuals who, living on our soil, went to fight in Syria or Iraq and often formed networks that helped each other depending on circumstances.” While the authors of the terrorist attacks seem to have been marginalised by French society, or at least to have lived chaotic lives marked by delinquency and crime, their radicalisation seems to have taken place as a result of the added ingredient of the terrorist ideology of IS and other groups. In the wake of the attacks, questions have been asked about why the French intelligence services failed to prevent the attacks and the adequacy or otherwise of the government's response. Yet, the overriding reaction among the public has been a desire to get back to life as normal as quickly as possible after the horrifying attacks and not allow the actions of a group of criminal young men to disrupt life in the French capital further. Unlike in January, when demonstrations took place across France in protest against the attacks on freedom of expression and in support of the victims, there have been no public demonstrations in the wake of the November attacks since these have been placed off limits by the emergency laws adopted after them However, impromptu memorials have appeared outside the bars and restaurants in the French capital's 11th arrondissement where the attacks took place, together with a larger memorial consisting of flowers, candles, and cards carrying expressions of condolence, grief and determination, in the Place de la République in the northeast of the capital, which was the scene of the largest of the January demonstrations. The French media have also been memorialising those who died in the attacks, the French newspaper Le Monde carrying appreciations of each of the victims every day since mid-November. The series has underlined not only the terrible acts of the November criminals, cutting short the lives of 130 mostly young people gathered to enjoy a music concert or a meal or drink with friends, but also the cosmopolitan energy of today's French capital, which is a magnet for young talent from across the world. However, amid the desire for steps to be taken to ensure that this takes place there have been fears that a poisonous climate could be being created in France of economic and social exclusion among some young French Muslims, mixed with the extremist ideology offered by IS and similar groups and calls from some French politicians for harsher measures than those adopted by Hollande's Socialist Party government in the wake of the November attacks. Writing in this month's edition of the monthly Le Monde diplomatique, French lawyer Patrick Baudouin, honorary president of the International Federation for Human Rights, an international human rights group, said that in responding to terrorism by restricting individual liberties, already happening in France under the emergency laws instituted following the November attacks, the French government may be adopting policies that are “both counter-productive and illegitimate.” The laws, in force until February with the prospect of a constitutional amendment to allow further actions, include a “range of coercive measures,” Baudouin wrote, including “curfews, the searching of premises at any time, increased control of the Internet, closure of public places, the banning of public demonstrations, house arrest, increased electronic surveillance, and the banning of associations thought to be a threat to public security.” These measures have already led to what some commentators have seen as alarming actions by police against groups and individuals not necessarily involved in terrorism. According to a report in Le Monde on 4 December, since the introduction of the emergency laws 2,235 properties have been searched by police in connection with the November attacks, 263 people have been arrested and 330 have been placed under house arrest. Three French mosques have also been closed on suspicion of having links with Islamist terrorism. The danger of such actions, Baudouin wrote, was that they could lead to “a loss of liberty without any concomitant gain in security.” Terrorism aims to spread terror and intimidate the population, he added, but reacting to it by introducing more repressive legislation could simply lead to “making ordinary citizens the main victims of it.” In the meantime, security has been stepped up in Paris to new levels, with police and security personnel being placed prominently in public places and outside department stores, museums, private businesses and even public libraries. Residents and visitors to Paris are having to get used to being scanned by metal-detectors and having their bags opened and IDs checked as part of their daily routine and in the wake of concerns that are likely to last for many months to come. The Bataclan, the music venue at which some of the worst of the killings took place, remains closed, the street in front laden with cards and flowers. The Bonne Bière café where five people were shot dead on 13 November reopened to customers on 4 December. The Petit Cambodge restaurant, where 15 people died, has announced plans to reopen in mid-January 2016, followed perhaps by the nearby Le Carillon and La Belle Equipe, also hit by the attacks. At the moment, all are still almost inaccessible behind a sea of flowers.
