French Overwhelmingly Back Deporting Terror Suspects, Banning Radical Islam

A significant majority of French now support banning the radical Salafist sect of Islam, and the government reinstating the national state of emergency, as the nation reels from another deadly radical Islamic terror attack in March.

The new poll taken days after four were killed by a self-proclaimed member of the Islamic State killed four in southern France found the French public overwhelmingly backing a significant crackdown on radical Islam and deportations that could impact tens of thousands of people.

Perhaps most significantly, 88 per cent of French said they supported banning the rapidly expanding, radical Salafist sect of Islam, even though over half of respondents said they acknowledged that implementing the ban in France would be difficult, if not impossible.

Breitbart London has previously reported on the nature of Salafism, which contains many radical preachers who see violence as legitimate in pursuance of its aims and which provides the intellectual basis for the Islamic State. A regional director of Germany’s constitutional police said of the faith in 2017 that “every jihadist terrorist we’ve seen in Europe in recent years came from the Salafist scene”.

In addition to banning the radical interpretation of Islam, a majority of French surveyed also supported deporting terrorists, too. Le Figaro reports 83 per cent supported deporting foreigners on French soil who have so-called ‘S’ (security) case files on them held by the security services — the French term demonstrating that an individual is considered a potentially dangerous radical by the French state.

France admits to there being approximately 20,000 people on that list, meaning thousands of individuals could be deported from France should the will of the overwhelming majority of French citizens be translated into government policy.

The terrorist who killed four in and around Carcassonne in March, Radouane Lakdim, was a high priority subject of that list and had been on it since 2014 — but still, French police were unable to prevent the attack. Deportations could relieve some pressure from the security services — a former French intelligence official whistleblower this week revealed the state did not have enough agents or resources to watch all of the suspects.

The survey also found broad support for the extension of a state of emergency in France at 61 per cent, those agreeing even if to do so meant a curtailment of freedoms for citizens.

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