Over a week ago, I woke up to the news of the killing of a Rabbi and three other children at the Jewish school Ozar Ha Torah in Toulouse, France. Additionally, the gunman appeared to have been the same who also killed several french paratroopers days before. France was in shock, so was I.
But in an effort to be accurate and err on the side of safety, I felt that before we pigeonholed the killer into a specific category, we should wait an allow the French authorities to do their job. Great was the temptation to immediately cry “anti-Semitism killed again” and greater was the temptation to label the gunman as an Islamist on a mission to kill Jews. Yet, he was also responsible for the death of a man from the Carribbean and two other men, a Muslim and a Catholic. Was he a Neo-Nazi or was he simply insane?
The French media outlets excelled at their attempt to whitewash the crime. Their agenda was hiding in plain sight as they made every effort to divert public opinion of Merah from a radical Muslim terrorist to an extreme-right terrorist or even worse an insane individual. Insanity exonerates responsibility, how convenient!
It only took a couple of days for the French police to locate Mohammed Merah less than 3 miles from the Jewish school where he massacred the 4 people. After an intense raid on his apartment that lasted over 30 hours, the police shot him as he tried to jump through a window.
All doubts about his motives were quickly removed when it was proven that he was ideologically linked to Al-Qaeda. MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) documents Merah’s affiliation to Al-Qaeda through the French group Fursan Al-‘Izza (The Knights of Pride). Merah had been under surveillance by French authorities since at least 2005. He had travelled several times to the Middle East and Afghanistan, including Israel in 2010. He was arrested in Afghanistan in 2010 an immediately put on a no-fly list by the United-States while France decided to simply put him under surveillance.
While Merah might have acted under the leadership of Al-Qaeda, it is more likely that he acted alone, simply led by his ideological convictions. And frankly, that makes him and others like him more dangerously impulsive.
In the end, Merah’s ties to Al-Qaeda being real or simply ideological makes no difference, especially to the victims’ families. He murdered 7 people in a coldblooded act that he also saw fit to put on video. The man was evil NOT insane. Insanity exonerates responsibility, evil does not!
There should be no room in our minds for doubt about Merah’s motives. There should be no excuses for his hatred, and there should be no justification for his actions. Yet, on March 23rd, a teacher in Rouen, Normandy asked her 12th grade class to observe “a minute of silence for the victim” referring to Merah. Half of her class walked out and she was immediately suspended with possible further sanctions. The teacher had also said that Merah’s ties to Al-Qaeda were invented by the media and by President Sarkozy. The teacher later claimed that she was not well and that she needed time off. Insanity exonerates responsibility!
Liberalism and political correctness are becoming the accomplices of Radical Islam in the global takeover of Western civilization. Liberals are facilitating the work of radical Muslim extremists as they join forces aiming at a common enemy: Israel and the Jewish people.
Do not be fooled though, if Radical Islam is using Liberals to further their agenda of demonization and destruction of the Jewish people, guess who becomes the next enemy when Israel is no longer a threat?
Of course, God will never forsake Israel as the Bible promises in no uncertain terms in the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 31:35-37):
The Toulouse Massacre: Let’s Call a Spade a Spade!!!
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Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day, And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name:“ If this fixed order departs From before Me,”declares the LORD,“Then the offspring of Israel also shall cease From being a nation before Me forever.” Thus says the LORD, “ If the heavens above can be measured, And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel For all that they have done,” declares the LORD.
Unfortunately, many people are suffering from the current state of affairs because very few feel that they can or should do something. In a sense, they feel that it is not their responsibility. But wait, if they feel exonerated from their responsibility to stand up and fight for the truth, does that make them insane as well? In the words of Rabbi and philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel:
“Above all, the prophets remind us of the moral state of a
people: Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
Hi Olivier,
I appreciate your post, Olivier. It is scary for me and you, being Messianic Jews in Western Europe. It isn’t far fetched now, this week, that Europe is looking like it did before the Holocaust. I knew before seeing it, that you would certainly be writing about the massacre, and about the teacher in Normandy who wanted a minute of silence for Mohammed Merah instead of a moment of silence for the school children and their father. I’m sure you saw the similar article here: http://www.israeltoday.co.il