Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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President Emmanuel Macron last week promised “clarity on the death of Sarah Halimi.” But critics complain of societal doublespeak. (Pool photo by Kamil Zihnioglu/European Pressphoto Agency)

In France, Murder of a Jewish Woman Ignites Debate Over the Word ‘Terrorism’

by James McAuley | Jul 25, 2017 | World

PARIS — What happened to Sarah Halimi resembles the plot of a horror film. In the early hours of April 4, the 65-year-old retired doctor and schoolteacher, an Orthodox Jew, was asleep in the modest apartment in northeastern Paris where she lived alone. Shortly after 4...

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FILE – In this Aug. 22 2015 file photo, members of the police forensics team take part in an investigation next to a Thalys train on the platform at Arras train station, northern France. The main suspect in the case of a high-speed train attack thwarted by three Americans last year in northern France will be questioned by counter-terrorism judges Wednesday Dec. 14, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)

Suspect Says ISIS Ordered 2015 High-Speed Train Attack in France

by James McAuley | Dec 17, 2016 | World

PARIS — The main suspect in the August 2015 attack on a high-speed train in northern France was under orders from the same ISIS terrorist cell that orchestrated the Paris attacks in November 2015, his lawyer said Thursday. Ayoub El Khazzani, 26, a Moroccan citizen who...

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Tareq Oubrou, the rector of the mosque of Bordeaux. (Nicolas Tucat/AFP/Getty Images)

A French Imam’s Argument for Why Islam Belongs in France

by James McAuley | Sep 8, 2016 | World

BORDEAUX, France — Tareq Oubrou is the leader of the Muslim community in a city famous for the earthy red wines that have made this region a household name — and that his followers are forbidden from sampling. But after three major terrorist attacks in two years and...

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A worker installs projectors June 3 at a fan zone near the Eiffel Tower ahead of the Euro 2016 soccer tournament, which begins June 10. Charles Platiau, Reuters

Exaggeration in Number of Security Forces Guarding Eiffel Tower, Louvre Draws Question Marks

by James McAuley | Jun 7, 2016 | World

Paris-They are known as “Operation Sentinel,” the imposing soldiers in camouflage uniforms who patrol beneath the Eiffel Tower and outside the Louvre with FAMAS assault rifles. Together, they form a massive security operation of some 10,000 French soldiers deployed...