RUTHFULLY YOURS

UPDATE MIDNIGHT

The correct spelling of the killer’s name is: Adel Kermiche.

Precisions on the judicial structure: for the past 30 years, all cases involving terrorism are theoretically handled by a specialized anti-terrorism section in which all the personnel, judges, magistrates, investigating judges, and the Procureur (prosecutor) are theoretically expert at handling these cases. The parquet, then, would  be the chamber of the Procureur de Paris,  François Molins, that opposed the liberation of Adel Kermiche.

But let us not get into the complexities of the French judicial system. And let us agree that “terrorism,” meaning jihad, is a challenge to all our democracies.

Debate is raging today and will continue to generate a mixture of light and noise for many days to come. All opinions, within the limits of decency, are aired. The government defends its position, its decisions, its management and leadership from top to bottom. Every proposal for strict measures and more rigorous application of those that already exist is rejected as an insult to the Constitution.  The opposition is accused of grandstanding, flexing its muscles and bellowing out war cries, ignoring the values of liberté, égalité, fraternité. Le vivre ensemble [getting along together…but it really means getting along with Muslims]is constantly set forth as a kind of ultimate value that we must protect at all costs. All sorts of vague projects are attributed to Daesh and its ilk. They want to create divisions in our society, turn us against Muslims, spoil our diversity, provoke a religious war, make us relinquish our democratic principles and become autocratic and violent like they are.

Marine Le Pen said: they don’t want to divide us, they want to kill us

Some of my correspondents are asking if she will be the next president. This is because they assume she is the only person who knows the score and tells it raw. I disagree. But that is for another day.

Back to the actual atrocity. We will probably learn that Adel Kermiche was born in France and received the same education as any other French child. Or as much of it as he was willing to absorb. His family lives right near the church. Foiled in his two attempts to get to the action in Syria, liberated by a four-judge panel that considered him not too dangerous and, why not, possibly susceptible to reinsertion, he chose to walk into a church and slit the throat of an 86 year-old priest beloved by all in that small quiet quaint town. (Unless of course it was done by his not yet identified accomplice.) He could have chosen a multitude of other pursuits, like other French young men of varied origins. He chose to slit the throat of the priest. The other victim is an 86 year-old parishioner. There were only five people, including the priest, attending mass that morning.

According to the Procureur, the special commandos first tried to negotiate with the hostage-takers. To no avail. Then they tried to enter the church but were met by a “curtain” of three hostages, lined up to bar the way. Then the hostages came out, followed by the two suspects, reportedly one or both shouted “allahu akhbar.” They were wearing fake explosive devices made of things like a kitchen clock and aluminum foil. You can see how comical it was just by listening to a brief description.

And this is the image I leave you with tonight: the shocking contrast between the slipshod slapstick ten cent boo I’m a scary soldier of Daesh costume, and the reality of the knife of genocidal hatred that cut into the flesh of the man’s aged flesh. The contrast between a lifetime of good deeds, attested by townsfolk, and the unlived life of a young man enlisted into an evil cause. Of his own free will.