In a period of western religious history where atheists and agnostics seem to hold sway, there is still something especially depraved about wishing to head for one church, maybe two, and open fire on worshippers, priests and anyone else who happens to be around
But if the suspicions of French police, prosecutors and government leaders are well-founded, that is what Sid Ahmed Ghlam was intending to do until he accidentally shot himself in the leg in Paris on Sunday. His apparent hatred of the West did not, it seems, extend to wanting nothing to do with its emergency medical services; he called for an ambulance.
Investigators believe the 24-year-old Algerian student of electrical engineering had already murdered Aurélie Châtelain, 32, a fitness instructor. His DNA is said to have been found in her car, which he may have been trying to steal at the moment the weapon - part of a formidable arsenal discovered in his own car and at his flat - discharged, badly injuring him.
On the basis of other material recovered, including mobile phones, Ghlam was "beyond doubt" planning to attack one church or two, possibly in the suburb of Villejuif, the authorities say. In the interests of fairness, we ought to remember, too, that Ghlam's sister has told BFMTV her brother was never an extremist and must have been manipulated or threatened.
Meanwhile, France 24 reports the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, as saying it was among five terrorist attacks foiled in the country since 2013. First reports suggested this was since the terrible shootings at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly satirical paper whose contents displeased Islamist extremists, in January, but the timescale was later clarified by the government.
The suspect's targets, Valls said, were "the Christians, the Catholics of France", the first time Christians had been specifically chosen for attacks by alleged jihadists in France.
To mount a terrorist atrocity at a church was "to target a symbol of France, the very essence of France" the prime minister said. France had an exceptional Christian heritage – its cathedrals, churches and chapels attracting tourists and pilgrims alike - and this tradition had to be "protected but also remain open”.
There is nothing new, in modern, medieval or ancient history, about the killing of people because of their faith. Western Europe has not experienced the phenomenon in recent times, but elsewhere in the world, Islamists have massacred Christians (as in ISIL's slaughter of Ethiopians in Libya a few days ago) and also those they regard as the "wrong" kind of fellow-Muslims. I am sure my Palestinian and Maghrebin acquaintances in France would argue that the Jewish state of Israel sometimes acts as if Muslim life were worthless.
And there is a 20th century precedent from France itself for a massacre carried out in a church.
Faith was not the issue when a Nazi Waffen-SS company stormed the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, near Limoges, in June 1944 as the war in Europe drew to an end. Some 642 people were butchered, the men raked with machine-gun fire in barns while women and children were locked in a church, which was then set on fire. German soldiers aimed more machine-gun fire at those who tried to escape the inferno. The village was destroyed.
The Germans' "reasoning", sustained by former officers even after the war (many members of the unit were themselves killed soon afterwards in the Battle of Normnady), as that vigorous action was required after resistants had assassinated Nazi soldiers. That happens in military occupation, Herr Hitler.
I mention the man-made tragedy of Oradour in this context because an Arte documentary about it was broadcast on the eve of news of Ghlam's arrest. I had seen it, or a similar programme, before but watched it in horror.
There is no strict comparison to be drawn between the two events beyond the theme applicable to each, mass murder in a French church, and no obvious common lesson save to acknowledge that human depravity is not restricted to a bunch of wicked, ruthless terrorists but can be embraced by the armed forces of supposedly civilised nations.
Recent Comments