Hollande worried about support in France for terror
By JOSEPH STRICH
11/14/2012 23:33
French President François Hollande expressed “deep concern” about the support in his country for Islamic terrorism.
FRENCH PRESIDENT François Hollande 370 Photo: REUTERS
French President François Hollande on Tuesday expressed “deep concern” about the
support in his country for Islamic terrorism.
“Of course, one should
really be concerned about what is said within families. This acceptance of
terrorism is very worrying,” the French president said, at a press conference in
Paris attended by 400 correspondents – something he hopes to hold every six
months.
Hollande responded to a question in a way that echoed the words
of Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who accused the right wing on Tuesday of
being responsible for the wave of terrorism in France. “The return of terror
it’s you, your fault,” Hollande said, referring to the rightwing opposition in
parliament.
Hollande was talking about the latest development in the
Merah affair, which involves Souad Merah, the 34-year-old Salafist sister of
Mohamed Merah, the Muslim Franco- Algerian man who killed seven people last
March, including four Jews, in the southwest city of Toulouse.
In a
conversation filmed by M6, a French broadcaster, Souad said she was “proud” of
her brother for murdering the Toulouse Jews, and of how “he fought till the
end,” until police killed him The video of Souad was filmed with a hidden camera
while she was speaking to another brother, Abdelghani Merah, AFP
reported.
“The Jews are all about massacring the Muslims. I detest them,”
she said. “I think well of [Osama] bin Laden.
“I said that to the cops: I
am proud of my brother – proud, proud, proud,” Souad Merah said.
In a
book that went on sale in bookstores on Wednesday, Abdelghani Merah wrote that
both Souad and Mohamed “hated the infidels and particularly the Jews, without
distinction.
“My young brother was certainly a Salafist, but before he
turned into one he grew up in this detestable atmosphere that accommodates
anti-Semitism,” he wrote, according to a report in French newsweekly Le
Point.
The Merahs grew up with a “cultural anti-Semitism” and “despised
Jews,” Abdelghani wrote.
The interior minister said Souad’s words
constituted an “apology for terrorism and anti- Semitism, and a provocation to
religious and racial hatred.”
Meanwhile, the popularity of Hollande, the
socialist president elected six months ago, is plummeting, with almost 60
percent of the French dissatisfied with him.
Additionally, according to a
poll by the IFOP institute published last weekend by the weekly Le Journal du
Dimanche, 75% of French citizens think “there are too many Muslims in France.”