Terror has again hit home in Paris. Just over two years since the January 2015, attack on the office of satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people, a machete-wielding man has been shot after rushing soldiers guarding the precinct around the Louvre museum. In the interim there have been further attacks in France, Belgium and Germany, including a series of coordinated shootings and bombings in Paris in November 2015, in which 130 people died, and an attack in Nice in July last year that claimed 86 lives. What these incidents have in common is that they were carried out by young men whose minds had been poisoned, either in person or online, by the extremist rhetoric of those who abuse religion to foster hate and fear.
The man held over the Louvre attack, Abdallah El Hamahmy, 29, is an Egyptian who worked as a sales manager in Sharjah and flew to Paris from Dubai on a business trip last month. He has a law degree from a well-regarded Egyptian university, a wife and seven-month-old child, and a respectable job that afforded him a comfortable lifestyle. Nothing we know about him suggests that he had led anything but an ordinary, law-abiding life to this point. Indeed, his father is a retired police general. According to the French authorities, El Hamahmy was carrying two machetes bought at an armoury when he entered the mall near the Louvre. Before that, he had sent tweets indicating his intention to carry out an attack inspired by a warped interpretation of Islam.
This is a man who has enjoyed the rewards of living in an open and tolerant society. Nobody was killed, thanks to the swift response by French soldiers who shot and injured El Hamahmy, but the incident caused panic among the hundreds of people visiting the museum. Unease about possible attacks at similar “soft” targets reverberate across France and the world.
The UAE has condemned the crime and reaffirmed its solidarity with France along with its determination to support all means to eliminate extremism and crimes against innocent people. But authorities everywhere remain unable to answer a crucial question: what motivates some people to rise up against civilised society in this way? The UAE remains committed to the true, peaceful path of Islam and to vigilance against such attacks. We can’t eliminate self-radicalisation overnight, but we can continue to follow the right path, send strong countermessaging, support rehabilitation programmes and neutralise those who preach hate.