Boegel 1

Jamie Boegel

English 3

Mr. Phillips

3 May 2018

Muslim Influence in France society

The country of France in the past has been involved with terrorist groups and the Middle East,

both attacking them and the ones being attacked. In recent years, they have been the ones being

attacked by these Terrorist groups including ISIS. France has the largest Muslim population in all of

Europe, 5 million or 7.5% of the French population (Wyatt). The reason behind these terrorist attacks is

tied to the amount of Muslim Influence in France.

The recent outburst of these terrorist attacks in France is the result of Islamist fundamentalism.

The attacks are in response to what Muslims see as an offense to their faith/culture. When they see

discrimination or exclusion in the French society, the Muslim people get angry. The process of this is

called Radicalization, This is the process of causing someone to adopt to radical positions on political or

social issues. When Muslims or Middle Eastern people come into an area and spread around their views

they recruit French Muslims, getting people to join in on terrorists’ attacks is how Muslims use

radicalization. Which is the cause of these recent outbreaks of terrorism in recent encounters and past

encounters.

France and the Middle East/Africa have had a history of violence dating back to France’s

colonization of countries like Algeria; it all started in the 19th century when France invaded Algeria,

which was followed by efforts of trying to convert these Algerian-Muslims to Christianity. In 1950, these

Algerians thought otherwise rejected these efforts. As I said earlier while talking about discrimination

these people can feel it in France. “Today in France many hundreds of thousands of people of Algerian
 Boegel 2

decent living in France are poor and can feel the discrimination in the government, like the 2010 ban of

face coverings.” (Berman)

France has been working on their safety as a country, more policy making the streets safer for

their citizens. After the truck attack in Nice, France, the government immediately boosted up security

and protection all around the country. A truck driver turned onto a street and barreled down dozens of

people gathered to watch Bastille Day Fireworks in France. One witness said that everyone and

everything in the trucks path just were absolutely crushed. Trucks running into crowds of people is one

bad thing but that is not the only brutal thing happening to France in past couple years (Almukhtar).

Suicide bombs, mass shootings, stabbings and even beheading people are all things these terrorist

groups have done to French people in past years. From 2012-2016 there have been 17 terrorist attacks

in France all have been these brutal types of attacks listed above. Most of these attacks happened in

2014-2015, mostly being stabbings and vehicle ramming.

President Emmanuel Macron has blamed attacks like these on “underground Islamism” and is

making a dramatic chance to Islamic practices in France. France is now deploying 10,000 police officers

to patrol malls, synagogues, and tourist sites. Now we think what more security could have done to

stop this truck from killing innocent people trying to watch fireworks. Maybe stop it from even turning

on the street? However, with the new protection now that the French have beefed up on, I believe they

should not have anything major like that happen again, but other things are happening as well to

prevent terrorist attacks

Some major changes that the French government has made are Police allowed to carry weapons

at all times, raids on homes, put suspects under house arrest, etc. All these things will help the French as

a country and community to be safer and more protected against these attacks. Especially if sometimes,

police could be being attacked or injured in trying to stop these terrorists. They have also added more
 Boegel 3

security around transportation, buses, airplanes, etc. Allowing the searching bags if suspicious. One

more thing the French is doing is adding spies; the French government introduced a new bill, paying

spies to spy on its own citizens and any suspicious terrorist activities. Another big thing is cooperating

with other countries, many of these people involved in terrorist attacks were known to either Belgium

or France’s security services. The French have also taken the war of terrorism to the Middle East; they

have launched bomb raids on ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq. However, some people believe that these are

the reasons that France keeps being attacked is because ISIS will want revenge from what France has

done to them.

The French Muslim people want to practice their religion in peace, in the streets of Europe, but

when the French Government and or society treats them un fair, they get mad. This being the cause of

the terrorist attacks, radicalization being the cause of these terrorist attacks. “The internet and the

upcoming of “ethnoreligious fissures in the social fabric” are 2 reasons identified that cause the terrorist

surge in France” (Klausen). The French sees this Islamist fundamentalism as a part of identity politics, a

profound threat to France. “Mainstream Muslim organizations in the UK and France have unequally

commended the killings, saying that terrorism is an affront of Islam” (Wyatt).

The country of France has been through many struggles in its country having to deal with so

many terrorist attacks in the past years. Now trying to do all that is possible to stop it will be even

harder. I feel like that if the country of France does all the things they need to do to stop these attacks

they will succeed, more police, spies, etc. all those things are a major key in stopping terrorist groups in

France. France has had a long past with terrorist groups and if smart they should end those soon, if they

can stop Islamic fundamentalism in their own country and start being fair to Muslims or Islamic people

then everything will be fine. The French need to stop fundamentalism of Muslims, which will stop the

radicalization further stopping these terrorist attacks from happening.

 Boegel 4

Works Cited

Almukhtar, Sarah. “What Happened in the Truck Attack in Nice, France.” The New York Times, The

New York Times, 14 July 2016.

Berman, Eliza. “The History of French-Muslim Violence Began in Algeria.” Time, Time, 13 Jan. 2015

McPartland, Ben. “What Has France Actually Done to Fight Terrorism?” The Local, The Local, 19

July 2016

Ultius. “Essay on French Protests Regarding Terrorism.” Ultius, 20 Jan. 2015

Wyatt, Caroline. “Paris Attack Highlights Europe's Struggle with Islamism.” BBC News, BBC, 7 Jan.

2015