A remarkable report released by the French senate this week reveals that 47 percent of all known jihadists now in ISIS-held territory are French citizens, with national intelligence networks having to keep tabs on up to 3,000 individuals at any one time.
The report comes after Senator Jean-Pierre Sueur initiated a parliamentary probe into the scale and nature of French citizens leaving their new homeland to join international terrorists in the Islamic State. The findings show over 1,430 French citizens are known to have gone to ISIS, with 85 having perished during the intense fighting in Iraq and Syria.
Of those who took the decision to flee Europe to fight Islamist wars in the Levant, unfortunately for France some 200 have returned, adding extra strain on security services already stretched by the constant blanket deployment ordered since the Charlie Hebdo attacks. It was reported in French media this week the fatigue for the security forces deployed to protect newspaper offices, synagogues, and tourist attractions is starting to show, with absenteeism rising at an alarming rate.
In addition, the report also found that France’s jails held 152 known Islamist radicals – a concerning figure considering the known culture of radicalisation known to exist in many European jail systems. As Breitbart reported earlier this year, the comfortable conditions and freedom to practice Islam in the British prison system creates a ‘safe space’ for radical interpretations of Islam to flourish.
TheLocal.fr reports the French state is taking action to limit the spread of radical Islam in their prisons – by hiring more Muslim prison chaplains, boosting numbers by a third to almost 250.