Terror attack in France leaves three dead at a church.

 

The scene of the attack. BBC/EPA.

A terror attack in France has left three people dead at a church in Nice. BBC. Two people, a man and an elderly woman, were attacked in the church itself, with the woman being decapitated or nearly so. A third woman attempted to run away but was stabbed several times, dying shortly after fleeing to a café. A suspect was shot and detained. No motive was released but the suspect shouted "Allah Akbar", which suggested Islamic terrorism. The attack occurs weeks after a teacher was beheaded for showing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons that depict Muhmmad, which is forbidden by most sects of Islam. Two other incidents happened, one with a man with a gun in Montfavet, who ended up being shot and killed by police, and an attack on the French embassy in Saudi Arabia, which only left a guard injured. France's President Emmanuel Macron has defended the right of free speech when it comes to Islam and it has led to a collapse of relations with Muslim countries, most notably Turkey. The President of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan, was mocked in the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo. 

My Comment:

Looks like things are getting bad in France again. The secular culture of France is not meshing well with the religious culture of Islam and it's leading to violence. I support the actions of President Macron and the Charlie Hebdo paper, these attacks should not deter their commitment to free speech. Depicting Muhammad may be against Islam but sooner or later they will have to concede that non-Muslims aren't going to follow their rules. 

I also consider the three people murdered in this attack to be martyrs for their faith. There is no doubt in my mind that these three people were brutally murdered because they were Christian. Nobody just decides to attack a church unless they hate the people that worship there and I think that is what happened here. 

Of course the irony is that the Christian Church has nothing to do with Charlie Hebdo or the secular French government. It's not the Christian faith making the argument that these cartoons are necessary, it was the French government and the French people. Targeting Charlie Hebdo or the French government would make more sense but my guess is that the attacker hates Christians as much as they hate secularism. It's likely Islam or nothing for the attacker. 

It's unclear if this was an organized attack or not. It's possible that the attacker had local support like the guy who decapitated the teacher awhile back, but I don't think a major terror organization ordered this just due to the fact that ISIS and al-Qaeda are mostly gone. Of course it's not like a mass stabbing needs much in the way of support, almost anyone can pull one off. 

I do blame some of the governments of the Middle East for this, most notably Turkey. Nobody has been louder in attacking Charlie Hebdo then Turkey and it's president, Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan is a dictator and a terrible ally but he deliberately made this situation much worse by commenting on it. A respectful leader would have not started this slap fight between him and France. I didn't think my opinion of Erdogan could get much lower but here we are... 

I do expect there to be a minor wave of these kinds of attacks in France, though I doubt it will grow beyond their borders. Erdogan and other Muslim leaders have done a good job of whipping people up into a frenzy and that means the crazies and the folks with nothing to lose will probably try more of these attacks. 

However, it's possible that the Coronavirus situation in France might change things. The country is going into another lockdown which means people won't be on the streets as much. It probably won't deter a determined attacker but it may give him fewer targets. On the other hand, the obvious economic damage a lockdown will cause could lead to more disorder and more attacks. In short, it's not a great time to be in France right now... 

I'm not happy to see a resurgence of violence in Europe. Islamic Terrorism hasn't been much of a concern lately until some random person uploaded a teacher talking about free speech. I guess it just goes to show that even though ISIS and al-Qaeda are afterthoughts today the ideology that spawned them still exists and can still cause deaths.