83% of French back expulsion of "most dangerous" foreigners

A new poll taken days after a self-proclaimed "soldier of ISIS" killed four people, including a heroic police officer, in the French town of Trèbes, shows the French public strongly support a serious crackdown on radical Islam. An overwhelming majority are in favour of deporting some 20,000 "most dangerous" foreigners tagged as "fiché S", meaning that security services have a file on them.

The poll, taken by Odoxa-Dentsu and published on March 30th in Le Figaro, gauged support for proposals put forward after the terrorist attack by Laurent Wauquiez, leader of France's newly-formed Republican Party. (Good choice of names, eh!)

Click on the graphic to enlarge it for ease of reading. If you don't read French, Walt will list M Wauquiez's four modest suggestions:
* Ban salafism (approved by 88% of respondents to the poll)
* Place in "administrative detention" the most dangerous "fiché S" cases (87% approval)
* Expel (= deport) the "fiché S" foreigners (83%)
* Re-establish the state of emergency lifted only a few weeks prior to the Trèbes "incident" (61%)

The blue circles show how support for the propositions breaks down according to the political preferences of those polled, from left ("de gauche") through "REM" (the party of President Macron) to right ("de droite") and "FN" (Marine Le Pen's Front National). It's worth noting that even leftists and centrist REM supporters approved the ideas put forward, with only one exception.

The bar graph at the left shows response to the question: Would you be in favour of some curtailment of liberties in order to better assure the security of the French people? 61% of those polled said YES, and even 50% of self-identified leftists agreed.

As for Salafism - a term which may be unfamiliar to some of our readers -- the majority of responders support banning of the radical Islamic sect, even though over half of them acknowledged that implementing the ban in France would be difficult, if not impossible. Breitbart London has previously reported on the nature of Salafism, which contains many radical preachers who see violence as legitimate in pursuance of its aims and which provides the intellectual basis for the Islamic State. A regional director of the German constitutional police said in 2017 that "every jihadist terrorist we've seen in Europe in recent years came from the Salafist scene."

The opinions of the French public are clear, and strong too. Will the government of Emmanuel Macron listen to the people? Are such politically incorrect opinions ever listened to by the government of any of our western democracies? Walt can think of only one prime minister or president who would heed the opinion of the people who elected him. I won't tell you his name but his initials are Donald Trump!

UPDATED: "Allahu akbar!" Islamic hostage-taking in France

Up at the crack of dawn. Normally I seal up the crack and go back to bed. This morning, however, there's a breaking story from France which I want to put up, to remind you, dear reader, that just because the Islamic terrorists have been more active, lately, at home in Armpitistan, doesn't mean that there's no longer any threat to Europe or America.

From the south of France -- a small town called Trebes, south of Toulouse -- comes news of a hostage-taking (in progress as I write) which Prime Minister Edouard Philippe says "seems to be a terrorist act." In accordance with the political correctness which is now de rigueur throughout western Europe, he did not use the words "Islamic" or "Muslim", but we all know who he's talking about, n'est-ca pas.

Seems someone -- possibly a militant Muslim -- shot a cop and then holded up inside a Super-U supermarket. A spokesthingy for the Interior Ministry, which controls the gendarmerie and other security forces, told AP there is one suspect and police are trying to subdue him. He provided no details of how many people were inside the supermarket or were believed held hostage. There are unconfirmed media reports that the assailant claimed connections to ISIS. Quelle surprise!

The French prime minister has described the situation as "very serious," and President Emmanuel Macron has asked Interior Minister Gerard Collomb to go to the scene. The Paris prosecutor's office said counterterrorism investigators have taken over the probe into the ongoing incident, but didn't provide details on why. They didn't have to. "Allahu akbar!"

UPDATED AT 0600: Inspector Clouseau now says two people have been killed and about a dozen others wounded. He then the pronounced the ritualistic words that "the motive for the hostage-taking is unclear."

UPDATED AT 1400: The  death toll in the Islamic terrorist attack now stands at 3. Make that 4 if you add in the Muslim extremist attacker, now identified as Redouane Lakdim, 26, a native of Morocco. He was shot dead (and a good thing, too) when police stormed the supermarket in which he had holed up. Police now say that they had been watching M Lakdim, who was suspected of having been "radicalized". Turns out they just weren't watching him closely enough.

Footnote: In the first paragraph I mentioned that the Islamic terrorists had been more active of late at home in Armpitistan. The mojo wire just now spat out news of a car bombing outside a sports stadium in Afghanistan's Helmand province. 14 people were killed and 45 wounded. The office of Afghan president Ashraf Ghani issued a statement condemning the "brutal terrorist attack."

Another footnote: These attacks occurred just days after Pope Francis declared that there is no connection between Islam and terrorism. Scroll down to Walt's post earlier this week. The Pope, of course, does not live anywhere near southern France, let alone Afraghanistan.