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The Spectacle Blog
As Aaron Goldstein notes below, the suspect in a standoff with French police in Toulouse reportedly trained with al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He’s also affiliated with Forsane Alizza, a group that was banned in France last month. Aaron Zelin, a researcher who collects and translates radical Islamist material at Jihadology.net, tweets this morning, “So I wake up to the French shooter potentially being a Forsane Alizza dude? If so, he’s no lone wolf. Nurtured by a French jihadi network.” In a dozen tweets, give or take, he goes on to sketch some background on the group and how it’s linked to similar groups in Europe; the series of tweets are collected via Storify here.
The series concludes with former US Navy intelligence analyst Andy Kopp chiming in to caution that “it’s still a big presumption this is ‘group’ related, despite his affiliations. Would represent a serious departure from [Forsane Alizza’s modus operandi]”; Zelin responds that he agrees, and is just “contextualizing his social network. Not saying [Forsane Alizza] directed [the] plot, but he doesn’t live in a vacuum.”
UPDATE: Zelin has now updated his Storify thread to add an important, subtle point: Forsane Alizza is not an al Qaeda affiliate and it’s a mistake to conflate them, but for the purposes of al Qaeda propaganda, “if the Toulouse shooter says he’s AQ, he is, period.” This holds true even if the reports about his AfPak training turn out to be incorrect.
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More Blog Posts by John Tabin
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/03/21/the-french-shooting-suspects-j
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Drek| 3.21.12 @ 9:43AM
Is this a mystery or something?
Of course he was a follower of mohammad, and of course he's part of a group that takes seriously the various sayings of mohammad.
I recall Dianne Sawyer's interview with the sister of bin laden where she said something to her about "radical" islam, and bin laden's sister vehemently interjected and corrected Sawyer, saying there was no "fundamentalist" or "radical" islam. There was islam, and not islam she said. There are those who practice it, and those who don't.
But all this talk about "fundamentalism" and "radicalism" was nothing but western projection.
martin j smith| 3.21.12 @ 9:48AM
I have what I will call Anglo-Euro-Phobia. That is why I will not travel any lo0nger to that place across the pond or to that continent a bit further along especially the Western Part. This shooting is a mere
drop in the bucket as to why I feel this way.
Screwtape| 3.21.12 @ 9:52AM
England for the English. Duetschland uber Alles!
Drek| 3.21.12 @ 11:30AM
Or else gang rapes in Sweeden, murder in France, and honour killings throughout the continent..........
So what's worse, maintaining the ethnicity and the remaining Christian aspect of the continent, or going all multicultural and getting all of the aforelisted, and worse?
You make the call.
Drek| 3.21.12 @ 2:53PM
A recent poll indicated that over 60%, SIXTY PERCENT, of muslims in the UK desire shariaa law implemented.
So how does that jive with inculturation and assimilation?
Bob Miller| 3.21.12 @ 4:10PM
It's only native Europeans and the like who (so far, anyway) push multiculturalism. The Muslims want one culture for all, namely, their own .