French authorities have arrested and indicted two Muslim girls, ages 15 and 17, for plotting a suicide bombing in the Great Synagogue of Lyon.
The girls contacted each other through social media and are among 60 people under investigation in France for association with radical Islamists, especially the Islamic State (ISIS), where thousands of Europeans have joined the terrorist group.
The suicide plot in Lyon is part of the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Europe, where four people were killed earlier this year in an attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels. At least nine French synagogues have come under stack since Israel retaliated against Hamas rocket fire last month.
“Jews in France or Belgium are being killed because they are Jews,” Roger Cukierman, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), told Newsweek. “Jihadism has become the new Nazism. This makes people consider leaving France.”
ISIS and other Muslim groups of murderers have attracted women and teenagers as well as men.
A poll last week revealed that 16 percent of French citizens – all citizens and not just Muslims – support the ISIS. The percentage jumps to 27 percent for those aged 18-24. That is not a typo. More than one out of every four French citizens from the age of 18-24 supports the Islamic State movement that beheads anyone who does not follow its command is higher in younger age brackets. Rape is standard operating procedure for the ISIS.
The same poll of British citizens came up with seven percent support for ISIS. Unlike the younger generation in France, “only” four percent of Britons in the 18-24 age bracket are favorable to the ISIS. The number jumped to 11 percent for those aged 35-44.
One of the factors driving up the surprising support in France may be unemployment.
“This is the ideology of young French Muslims from immigrant backgrounds, unemployed to the tune of 40 percent, who’ve been deluged by satellite TV and internet propaganda,” reported Newsweek’s France Correspondent, Anne-Elizabeth Moutet, She added, “These are the same people who torch synagogues”.
Muslims account for up to 10 percent of France’s 66 million people. Even if every Muslim were to support for ISIS, the 16 percent pro-ISIS figure is more than scary, even if the sample in the survey was not representative of the total population.