Ismail Omar Mostefai, one of Bataclan terrorists, lived in a suburb of Paris with his family, in a large beautiful house.
So neither a refugee, nor a victim of racist marginalization.
Neither a Refugee nor a Victim
Opinions, art, debate
Clarissa's Blog 
This is not new. For instance:
Both before and after the 9/11 attacks, numerous studies have looked at the economic and educational backgrounds of Islamic terrorists. One investigation by Princeton-trained economist Claude Berrebi analyzed 335 members of the Palestinian terror groups, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The terrorists surveyed were mainly shahids, or “martyrs,” who had died while waging jihad against Israel between 1987 and 2002. Berrebi discovered that 16 percent of those terrorists could be classified as poor, compared to 31 percent of the male Muslim population (between the ages 18 and 41) in the Palestinian territories as a whole. Conversely, 33 percent of the terrorists could be considered “well off,” compared to only 20 percent of Palestinian adult males in that same age group. And another 10 percent of the terrorists were “very well off” according to the survey, as opposed to virtually 0 percent of Palestinian males overall who fit that same description. The study also indicated that the Palestinian terrorists were generally more highly educated than the typical male in the Palestinian population at large.
Given the evidence, Berrebi concluded: “If there is a link between income level, education and participation in terrorist activities, it is either very weak or in the opposite direction of what one intuitively might have expected.”
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=550
LikeLike
I read Malik’s post and it is good mainly, reinstating his usual points:
https://kenanmalik.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/after-paris/
However, this statement of his seemed not describing everything either:
\ The terrorists did not target symbols of the French state, or of French militarism. They did not even target tourist spots. […] What the terrorists despised, what they tried to eliminate, were ordinary people, drinking, eating, laughing, mixing. That is what they hated – not so much the French state as the values of diversity and pluralism.
https://kenanmalik.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/after-paris/
Did those French terrorists really told themselves “We hate diversity”? When they are “the diversity” themselves among the French majority?
Also, isn’t it convenient that when EU or America are attacked it’s because “they hate our values,” but terrorism in the Middle East, including in Israel, is viewed as purely / mainly political?
LikeLike
These are two very different groups of people. Those who say “this is an attack on our values” are very supportive of Israel. Those who dislike Israel also reject the “attack on values” discourse.
These terrorists attacked a stadium where the president of the French Republic and a German official were present. There are few more impressive symbols of the French state, so I can’t agree with this blogger. As for this being an attack on diversity, that’s just cooky.
LikeLike
Yeah, ‘they hate us for our freedom’ is not an argument I’ve seen coming from the left.
LikeLike
The left’s argument is hardly any better. “They did it because we made them do it” is just as self-involved.
LikeLike
\ These terrorists attacked a stadium where the president of the French Republic and a German official were present. There are few more impressive symbols of the French state,
Have you heard that:
The massacre on Friday that killed at least 80 at the Bataclan theater was not the first time that the veteran concert hall in Paris’s 11th district, was put in danger by Islamic terrorists. In 2011, Farouk Bin Abbas, a French Muslim extremist , told French intelligence during an interrogation that he and his fellow members of the Jaysh al-Islam organization planned on attacking the Bataclan because “its owners are Jewish.”
The hall was also threatened in 2007-2008 because of the fact that it routinely hosted conferences of Jewish organizations, as well as a fundraiser for the IDF and Israeli Border Police. In 2008, during Operation Cast Lead, a video was uploaded to the internet that showed about ten youths with masks on, supposedly Palestinians, who threatened the Bataclan, because it was hosting a special gala event for Israel’s Border Police.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4725983,00.html
From terrorists point of view, it seems to be an attack on Jews especially too.
LikeLike
Ah, finally an explanation. I was wondering what it was about this concert hall. Russians online are relying on the fact that it’s a music hall to push the “Putin did it” narrative. As we know, Putin does have a history with acts of terror in a concert hall.
LikeLike
One argument that I have seen repeatedly from the far left says in effect, “They attack us because we deserve it.”
LikeLike
Troll rating: 6/10. Needs to be a bit more subtle to get a rise out of people.
Good effort. Better luck next time.
LikeLike
Got a rise out of you, didn’t it, sonny?
LikeLike
Like I said, more effort needed.
Btw, Sonny? Are we in a 1950s gangster movie now?
‘You watch your mouth, buster!!’
Hey, this is fun.
LikeLike
I don’t see this as an attack aimed specifically at Jewish targets. ISIS seems to hate everybody (Christians, Jews, Muslims who don’t share its extreme views, etc.), and this attack was aimed at high-value targets where ISIS hoped to do the most damage and cause the greatest psychological panic.
LikeLike
I’m reminded of the Khmer Rouge who were all university educated in Paris (where they took French rhetoric about eliminating the bourgeoisie a little too literally).
But again I keep saying that Political Islam is this century’s communism – a horrible ideology that brings nothing but misery and destruction whenever it’s enacted but which a lot of people refuse to give up on, no matter how much evidence they have to ignore.
LikeLike
And if we remember how much effort Soviet leaders (Andropov is one example) invested into the creation of this political islam, you are doubly right. The Arabic translation of the Protocol of Zion Elders was created by Andropov-led KGB and shipped to the Middle East in massive quantities, for instance.
LikeLike
I would put forward the argument that this was a deliberately targeted attack by ISIS to stop ordinary French people(and other mainland Europeans) looking at the destitute refugee families (at the Jungle at Calais and other places) with sympathy and demanding that their governments take care of those fleeing this war, but instead regarding Syrians (and other Muslims) with fear and hatred.
LikeLike
I most sincerely hope that you are joking. Surely there aren’t people who can seriously believe something like this.
LikeLike
\ this was a deliberately targeted attack by ISIS to stop ordinary French people … looking at the destitute refugee families … with sympathy
\ I most sincerely hope that you are joking. Surely there aren’t people who can seriously believe something like this.
I have read it many times on the web already.
Don’t like reading such since people saying this practically always proceed to “let’s let the entire Middle East into Europe, without any checks. And while we are at it, other parts of the world too may arrive. If you are against, it’s because of being a racist, manipulated by ISIS fool.”
However, many people do connect the attacks with current refugees and do begin feeling differently about the latter as a result. I do see a certain connection: Syrian refugees may not be terrorists now, but their children and grandchildren are likely to behave like children of former Muslim immigrants are behaving now. There will be the same problems of poor immigrant ghettos, unemployment, feeling left out, cultural attitudes towards women, etc. Enough will turn to terror, as already happens.
LikeLike
“I have read it many times on the web already.”
“There will be the same problems of poor immigrant ghettos, unemployment, feeling left out, cultural attitudes towards women, etc. ”
LikeLike
Regarding being upset, I am now too:
Friday’s terror attacks in Paris that killed 129 people were rooted in the frustration of Muslims in the Middle East, including that of Palestinians, Sweden’s foreign minister said this week in a television interview.
“To counteract the radicalization we must go back to the situation such as the one in the Middle East of which not the least the Palestinians see that there is no future: we must either accept a desperate situation or resort to violence,” Margot Wallström told Swedish television network SVT2T (link in Swedish) a short while after the November 13 attacks, which were claimed by the Islamic State terrorist organization.
http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/11/16/swedish-foreign-minister-paris-attacks-rooted-in-palestinian-frustration-in-middle-east/
LikeLike
What a dumb person this so-called foreign minister is.
I think the next step will be to give terrorists cookies and milk and pat them on their heads to express our deep compassion for their tragic plight.
LikeLike
If we expand from political/religious terrorists to disaffected nihilists more generally, look at Elliot Roger or the Columbine guys (among many others). None of these people were at the bottom of society’s heap or suffering from even minor deprivation in terms of their material lifestyle. All solidly upper middle class.
LikeLike
Good point.
LikeLike