French officials overrode objections of local officials who were forced to allow a secret burial Friday night for one of the radical Islamic terrorists who murdered a dozen people at the Charles Hebdo magazine offices two weeks ago.
The mayor of the city of Reims, Arnaud Robinet, said last week he would “categorically refuse” to allow the family of Said Kouachi to bury their terrorist son in the city where he lived before police killed him and his brother.
“I don’t want a grave that serves to attract fanatics. I don’t want a place that promotes hate,” he a French radio station on Thursday.
City officials backed down in the face of orders from the national government. “Given the risk of disturbance of the peace and in order to quickly turn the page of this tragic episode, it was decided to do the burial quickly,” the city said.
The terrorist’s wife did not attend the burial because she did not want to be followed by journalists.
Two other terrorists killed by police in a gunfight following the Islamic terror spree in Paris have not yet been buried. Kouachi’s brother Cherif will be buried in his native Gennevilliers, outside Paris in an anonymous grave. City officials said they will “avoid all risk of disturbance to the peace and to preserve the town’s tranquility.”
It is not yet known what will be done with the body of Amedy Coulibaly, who killed five people, including four hostages, at a kosher market in Paris.
France still is reeling from the terror spree, trying to maintain a posture that will not offend Muslims or label all of them as radical Islamists.
A Paris administrative court ruled that Paris police were in their rights to ban an “Islamists out of France” rally planned for Sunday.
One of the organizers, “Secular Riposte,” announced it will hold a press conference instead of a rally, but Resistance Republicaine, a co-sponsor of the banned demonstration, said it will hold anti-Islamist rallies in southern France.
Jews in France and Belgium have been thrown back 70 years to the Nazi era. French Jews prayed in a private home Friday night because they could not be guaranteed safety to worship in a synagogue.
Police in Belgium were deployed in areas that could be targeted by terrorists, especially the Jewish quarter in Antwerp.
Approximately 150 paratroopers guarded synagogues and the Jewish Museum in Brussels after Jewish schools closed their doors Friday because of warnings of possible attacks.