24 Dec 2014
More than 1,000 soldiers have been deployed on the streets of France for Christmas after a spate of suspected festive-season terrorist attacks across the nation have left many French citizens critical of the government’s denialism, and fearful of increasing violence.
The move stands in contrast to the official line of the French government that the attacks, in which the assailants were reported in all cases to have shouted the Arabic salutation “Allahu Akbar” as they commenced their rampages, had nothing to do with terrorism, and were completely unrelated. The government has come under fire from opposition parties for its denial of a terrorism link, with French social media users reportedly cheering on the straight-talking rejection by the Front National (FN).
The Times reports the comments of FN deputy leader Florian Philippot which have apparently got social media users excited: “This is obviously terrorism… I wish they would stop playing politics and ideology, telling us that there are systematically isolated acts by disturbed people”. France has the largest Muslim population of any Western European nation, and the FN believes the government is reluctant to say anything that could antagonise the millions of Muslims settled in the country.
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Different country! Same memo!
US government has read the same memo!
