From 2002, year of its establishment, to 2014, Miviludes has been ignoring the wolves born from openly murderous sects which settled on its territory. They preferred to chase the peaceful bees: spiritual minorities and alternative medicines. Result : a deadly misunderstanding which, unfortunately, keeps going.
Hit hard by attacks since January 2015, France is the European country that deplores the highest number of deaths in terrorist attacks since 2004. And the number of such attacks keeps increasing : Charlie Hebdo, Hypercacher, Paris, Saint -Denis, Saint-Quentin-Falavier, Magnanville, Nice, Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray and several other attempts fortunately thwarted or aborted…
France attentatsStrangely enough, France is also the country claiming to be the fiercest fighter against “sectarian abuse”. It claims to be “on the forefront” in this area, thanks to the impressive legislative, judicial and law enforcement weaponry it has implemented in recent years : Miviludes (to fight against sectarian abuse), with a President whose salary has been multiplied by two, Caimades (an anti-cult special police), the About-Picard law (a law punishing “sectarian abuse”), anti-cult associations funded by the government (Unadfi, CCMM, Gemppi, etc.), countless warning campaigns, millions of euros spent each year…
The problem – and it is huge – is that it always fought against peaceful individuals and groups while ignoring totally at the same time members of dangerous groups openly claiming their willingness to kill.
Real threats answered by blindness
The issue of creating tools for prevention and fight against Islamist radicalization was raised extremely late. It started to be considered by Miviludes in 2014 only, although existing since 2002. It is only since that year – more than 30 years after the first warnings of Islamist sectarian abuse ! – that Miviludes has been “working” on “detection and prevention of [Islamist] radical behavior”.
True, this inter-ministerial body has not been helped by the State, all governments [1] have been equally blind and biased. “Since the 80s”, regrets in Le Figaro in May 2015 Jeannette Bougrab, a French scholar who became Master of Requests to the Council of State, “France has been underestimating the rise and radicalization of Islam. The case of the veil in Creil in 1989 was a first warning, unfortunately ignored. The elites have preferred to cover their eyes rather than take the measure of the disastrous consequences of the abandonment of our Republican model. I tried to alert through writings and lectures on the severity of the phenomenon of radicalization of young Muslims, some being recent converts. But one sometimes has the terrible impression that people get used to the violations of the most fundamental rights.”
This total blindness in front of real threats was however coupled with a paranoid psychosis in front of minority spiritual movements (other than the Islamist ones) and alternative medicine, and with their unwavering harassment for twenty years.