Repatriation of jihadists from Iraq: A 'Trojan horse' for Paris

Baghdad wants to hang eleven French and one Tunisian nationals. Their fate has sparked a debate. Paris has confirmed that it has taken steps to prevent the sentence from being implemented. French lawyers have signed an appeal against their execution. One young Muslim wonders: "Are those who willfully burnt their French passports worthy of being or "becoming French again"?

Paris (AsiaNews) – By allowing the repatriation of Jihadis and their families, "either the French state has not learnt anything from the past, from what happened in Iraq and Syria, or it is pretending not to have understood anything from the attacks at Charlie Hebdo, Bataclan, Nice,” writes Kamel Abderrahmani, about the ongoing debate in France over the issue.

In a series of trials that began on 26 May and ended on 3 June, Iraq sentenced 11 Frenchmen and one Tunisian living in France to death by hanging (picture 2). The defendants are guilty of belonging to the Islamic State (Daesh). The sentences issued by Iraqi courts are a challenge to France’s position. Paris is torn between respect for Iraqi sovereignty and opposition to the death penalty. Here are the thoughts of a young Muslim scholar. (Translation by AsiaNews).

In France, another debate is underway on the possible return of French jihadists. In my opinion, this is a debate that should not take place given what this country has suffered at the hands of Islamist terrorists. It clearly shows that either the French state has not learnt anything from the past, from what happened in Iraq and Syria, or it is pretending not to have understood anything from the attacks of Charlie Hebdo, Bataclan, Nice ...

French authorities have refused the return of these terrorists so that they could finally be delivered by the Kurds to Iraqi authorities. However, after Iraq sentenced them to death, the French government took steps to prevent the sentence from being carried out. It is as if the French government expected them to be welcomed as heroes by the Iraqis or that people of France would protest to get them back to France!

French lawyers, including the Honorary President of the League of Human Rights, Henri Leclerc, went out on a limb by issuing an appeal saying that "the execution of these sentences or even allow their pronouncement (. . .) is like responding to barbarism with a penalty that we categorically prohibit.” It is a “historic risk that, if it were implemented, would leave an indelible stain on the mandate of Emmanuel Macron: allowing legal murder now banned by most countries on the planet, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, China, and the United States", this according to the lawyers who signed the appeal.

Indeed, there are legitimate questions. Are those who willfully burnt their French passports worthy of being or "becoming French again"? If not, why doesn’t France follow the Netherlands, which stripped Dutch terrorists who joined the evil state in Iraq and Syria of their Dutch nationality? Didn’t they voluntarily choose to reject the rule of law that is France and spit on her democracy? What do they expect from a country and a people they were ready to kill and destroy? In my opinion, these lawyers should defend the innocent, the intellectuals, the thinkers that countries like Saudi Arabia condemn to death and not the terrorists because they are simply French! It is not because we are French that we have the right to do whatever we want!

I think that the life of these terrorists, whether French or otherwise, is not so important compared to the massacres, the torture, the enslavement of men and women, among others the Yazidis, the indoctrination of children etc. A barbarism no nation tolerates is committed in the Middle East and it is there that they deserve to be judged. Westerners ought to give the Iraqis the opportunity to do justice for the survivors of Daesh.

With respect to children born to parents who joined Daesh, the question I ask myself is: In what French school could a child who has been brainwashed, who learnt to handle, disassemble and assemble weapons blindfolded, an indoctrinated child who breathed only the hatred for the "disbelievers", be classmates with children who know weapons only by their name? Is there an opportunity to de-radicalise them and show them their parents’ mistakes and atrocities? France cannot afford to go wrong on this issue because it will have a direct impact on the whole of Europe. In other words, if we do not de-radicalise them in depth, these children will be a future Trojan horse, for, when we make choices of this nature, we must accept the consequences.

• france
• mideast
• jihadis
• terrorism
• jihad
• death sentence
• repatriation