The movement of indignation and solidarity that has risen throughout the country against the barbarism of Islamist terrorism is a strong patriotic sentiment and attachment to republican values that has been expressed forcefully, with the fraternal support of other European countries, the United States, and all peoples of the world attached to democratic values.
In the face of barbarism, such emotion and indignation comfort us all. But emotion, indignation, and the indispensable national unity should not stop us from reflecting and learning lessons from this ordeal.
The sight of suffering and death, continuously relayed and broadcast on television, suddenly confronts us with horror and destabilizes the common sense markers. These are, after all, the goals aimed at by these criminals who play on terror and its stunning effects.
Terrorism thus establishes a permanent climate of anxiety and insecurity within the population. The illusion is to think that the fight against terrorism can be limited to attacking the economic, social, political conditions… that make it possible.
Such a stance and initial reaction resembles a refusal to confront a fanatic mentality that unhinges our moral references and our frames of thought.
One might still try to cling to psychological explanations (of “madmen” committing senseless acts)
But there, too, while the psychiatric dimension is very real, it cannot provide reassurance.
Islamist fanaticism, murderous ideologies are the unrestrained expression of destructive impulses against “the Jews and the Crusaders”.
The fight against terrorism requires a different approach: it must be fought with the utmost firmness within the framework of a state of law.
The refusal of any amalgamation, the fight against Islamophobia and the repression of attacks against mosques, just like all other places of worship, also involve clearly addressing the delicate issue of imams preaching an integral Islam, various propaganda organizations that incite adherence to radical Islamism, and thereby to barbaric and bloodthirsty groups.
The European Union was built on a legitimate desire for peace among European peoples. This was accompanied by an ethic of human rights and respect for law and dialogue between peoples.
In this sense, the movement of national unity that has spread throughout the country can be a lever for democratic renewal by strongly affirming our political and cultural heritage, French and European.
In this matter, nothing is set in stone, but France and Europe have the necessary resources to succeed. Will they have the political will?
Garibaldino
