Expert interview with Dr Cynthia Salloum on jihadism in France
In 2020, it became clear that the danger emanating from organizations like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda has not been eliminated. Instead, several European countries – and among them France – have recently fallen victim to a series of attacks.
This publication is part of the “Jihadist Terrorism in Europe” series, in which renowned experts analyze the current state of the jihadist threat in various countries. Dr Cynthia Salloum analyzes the situation in France, one of the rare countries in the West to have consistently suffered from terrorist campaigns by groups claiming affiliations either to armed non-state actors based in the Middle East and North Africa or to global Islamist jihadi organisations.
Cynthia Salloum provides distinctly a threat analysis and an identification of vulnerabilities, differentiates terrorism of organisation and terrorism of opportunity, and gives an overview of the French response to jihadist terrorist attacks. She analyses the acute polarization of the French political debate around religion and secularism and stresses the necessity to separate political from policy responses
