Jean Marie Montali (*)
In my job I have seen and heard, like many other journalists, a lot of crap. Many of us have seen more dead people than we would have liked to see: Destroyed, shot, hanged, burned… There are many ways to kill people. And all these ways of killing and dying, it makes piles of corpses of all colours, religions and ages, men and women, all over the world, and piles of survivors howling rivers of tears.
Hamid Zanaz (*)
European governments have left the way open for the Muslim Brotherhood to shape the Islamic public opinion in Europe as they wished. And the results were soon available. They have succeeded in Islamizing thousands of young people and adults, as reported in polls and surveys published in the European press and still vilified by the Muslim Brotherhood and their European accomplices.
Roland Jacquard (*)
The deadly attack on October 3 at the very heart of the intelligence directorate, at the Paris police prefecture, illustrated in the most dramatic way the phenomenon we mentioned in the first of this series of articles devoted to the new anti-terrorist challenges. Namely, this type of terrorist acts is no longer the work of commandos attacking France from the fiefdoms of ISIS in Iraqi-Syrian jihadist areas, but is the poisoned fruit of spontaneous “jihadist vocations”, generated at a distance, by recruiters of ISIS, among French “subjects” most often motivated by violent nihilistic impulses, more than by a real desire for a jihadist “holy war”.
Fabienne Durand (*)
More than ever, water becomes an issue of power, political stability in the Middle East. This situation of sometimes exacerbated tensions is the result of three major changes. The first change concerns the delineation of borders, which is the result of secret negotiations between the French and the English authorities during the Sykes-Picots Agreement of 16 May 1916, at the time of the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, described by Tsar Nicholas I as “an old sick man, seriously ill, fallen into disrepair”.
Christian Malard (*)
On September 7th, after a series of attacks perpetrated by Talibans against Afghan population and authorities, not to mention the 14 000 American soldiers stationed in the country, American President, Donald Trump, in one of his famous tweets, decided to put an end to a year of talks with the Talibans. Talks that were supposed to terminate an 18-year-old conflict.
Ian Hamel (*)
The least that can be said is that Tariq Ramadan’s performance against Jean-Jacques Bourdin on BFMTV did not have the desired effect. Even before the speech of the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, after almost two years of silence forced, Oumma.com, the main French-speaking Muslim site, lit him by evoking a “vain rehab”. The site recalled that “his life was a tissue of lies and his cynicism without limits “.
Martine Gozlan (*)
It was election day in Jerusalem. A day in the recent past – September 17 – but it could be a near future because Israel is blocked. The Hebrew state fails to give itself a government. He voted in the spring, voted again at the very beginning of the fall and is afraid of a third election.
Georges Malbrunot (*)
For years – and until recently – a good half a dozen Qatari individuals were funding al-Qaeda in Iraq in Syria or the Shebab in Somalia. For the purposes of our investigation, on the book published with my colleague Christian Chesnot (Nos très chers émirs, sont-ils vraiment nos amis), we met in 2016 one of these terrorist financiers, Sheikh Abd Al-Rahman bin Omer al-Nuaimi in Doha, who has been on the European Union and United States black lists since 2014.
Fabienne Durand (*)
In the Middle East, water has always been seen as a scarce and sacred resource. It is present in Sumerian and Akkadian myths. And the symbolism of water nourished the belief systems of the Hebrews and Arabs. Water is at the origin of the foundation of great hydraulic civilizations, which are water civilizations, either due to their control of this rare resource in a desert environment, like the one of the Nabataeans, or due to the capacity to mobilize this same resource, but in abundance, by the populations of the Fertile Crescent.
Martine Gozlan (*)
It is the only revolt of Arab people against its leaders that does not have right of citizenship in the European media, especially in French media. The revolt took place in Gaza last March: Hamas
repressed in the blood the anger of people who shouted “We want to live! “. It’s the opinion makers who, from London to Paris, repressed it in silence.
Christian Malard (*)
In deciding to obtain Russia’s S400 ground-air missiles, amongst the most sophisticated in the world, capable of reaching more than 80 targets at a time, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan merely defied the United States and jeopardised his country’s chances of remaining within NATO.
Ian Hamel (*)
Who is the Islamist in Switzerland who has monopolized the media most in the last decade? Tariq Ramadan, suspected of rape, or his brother Hani, director of the Geneva Islamic Center, and a strong advocate of stoning? Not at all, it is Nicolas Blancho, a 36-year-old convert with a long bushy red beard, chairman of the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (CCIS), a structure whose true audience it is difficult to assess.
Roland Jacquard (*)
The fight against terrorism is a very particular kind of war. An asymmetric battle in which the intelligence services are engaged in a relentless battle against an enemy as radical as it is invisible. In other words, unlike the rules that determine the balance of power in conventional wars, when faced with the faceless adversary known as terrorism, striking power and military supremacy are not the most decisive elements.
As a result, counter-terrorism is first and foremost an intelligence war. By definition, this is a constant struggle requiring dangerous and perpetual clandestine operations of investigation, surveillance, tracking, infiltration or sabotage.
Martine Gozlan (*)
Asia has finally been able to flee Asia. Asia Bibi, a Christian Pakistani, left her native country after ten years of nightmare. Ten years on death row in the prison where she was thrown in 2009 for “blasphemy”. In Pakistan, “blasphemy” is a crime: it allows everyone to accuse their neighbour of insulting Islam and its prophet.
Ian Hamel (*)
Can a Muslim put wine vinegar in his salad? Can a Muslim woman ride a bicycle? Or can she open to the postman when her husband is not at home? The European Council for Fatwa and Research (CEFR), created in March 1997 in Dublin by the Qatari of Egyptian origin Youssef al-Qaradhawi remarks, at least in theory, a good intention. It’s about providing wise advice to Muslims living in Europe so that they can integrate while reconciling Islamic law.
Roland Jacquard (*)
The Wall Street Journal’s recent revelations about failures and inadequacies of the UN sanctions program against the financing of terrorism, have made break out what many UN experts and officials knew and have denounced for many years.
Christian Malard (*)
The US President, Donald Trump, keeps repeating that he can face Iran without resort to war. However, it would be interesting to hear him specify what he would do if Iran was getting enough enriched uranium to make its nuclear bomb or if Iran took other initiatives that would make it cross the red line set by the United States.
Christian Malard (*)
On March 21, the day of the Iranian New Year, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , the supreme leader of the revolution, surprised everyone by calling for “unity and national reconstruction.” So we wondered: are US sanctions starting to take effect? The answer is yes, if I believe most observers.
Ian Hamel (*)
How did a Swiss of Egyptian origin manage to seduce so many young Muslims from the French suburbs since the 1990s? Tariq Ramadan certainly speaks well. Tall, slim, elegant, he has charisma, a charming smile. A speech perfectly adapted to its audience. But the main thing is not there. He is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
Roland Jacquard (*)
UAVs, small remote-controlled flying devices, made their appearance in the world of intelligence and counter-terrorism on September 7, 2000. Almost one year to the day before the tragic turn of the September 11, 2001 attacks, a Predator-type drone flew over a farm in southern Kandahar, where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was reportedly staying as part of a reconnaissance mission codenamed “Afghan Eyes”.
