6 April 2012. PenzaNews. Many international experts believe that a new and dangerous social phenomenon called “lone wolf” terrorism menaces modern European society. Previously these cases were considered to be typical only for the US. However, over the past ten years the number of such terrorist attacks in Europe has doubled. One of these tragic events has recently shocked France.

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In March 2012 Mohammed Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, killed seven people including three children in a series of gun attacks in Toulouse. His crimes were distinguished by extreme cruelty. Following the shootings, the city of Toulouse and the surrounding south western region of France have been put on the highest level of terrorism alert for the first time in the history of the state.

“Mohammed Merah was calm and determined. He assassinated them as if he was killing animals,” said Nicole Yardeni, the regional president of CRIF (Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France), France’s Jewish umbrella organization.

In response for committed crimes the government has strengthened counter-terrorism measures. On Wednesday morning, April 4, French intelligence services executed a country-wide operation arresting ten people suspected of connection with radical Islamists. According to law enforcement agencies, none of them is part of some network though they are attracted to radical ideas and some of these people may have been trying to attend jihadist training camps along the Afghan-Pakistan border. This information coinciding with the criminal portrait of Toulouse killer caused their arrest. However, according to some experts, it is too early to say whether Mohammed Merah prepared and carried out his attacks alone or with any help.

“Using expressions and labels such as lone wolf, terrorism or network prevents us from seeing this case as a separate event, carried out by a specific individual for specific reasons, motives or justifications,” noted Benoît Gomis, a researcher at Chatham House and part of the Young Atlanticist Program.

In addition, he ruled out the possible connection of these crimes with conflict between citizens of European origin and immigrants from Muslim countries.

“Merah’s attacks were not directed at the Christian community or any other as such. The absurd level of violence used is a shock which affected everyone, regardless of their origin or religion, and which should not be used politically to turn one community against another,” the expert said.

Moreover, the researcher at Chatham House believes that causes of the crime are connected with individual characteristics of the killer, which played an important role in his motivation.

“A number of senior officials have claimed that Mohammed Merah “self-radicalised in prison by reading the Quran”, but the real question is: what are the underlying personal factors that led Mohammed Merah to interpret not only the Quran but also other circumstances around him in such a hateful way,” the analyst stated.

According to Benoît Gomis, French police could not apprehend and neutralize future murderer before he proceeded to action.

“France is a republic based on the rule of law. Suggesting that Mohammed Merah should have been arrested for crimes he had not committed yet and without evidence that he was planning any dangerously opens doors towards arresting people without any legal foundations,” he declared.

At the same time the authorities have confirmed that the criminal visited Afghanistan and Pakistan on at least two occasions and on his return from Pakistan in 2011, Merah was questioned and put under surveillance by French intelligence agencies. These facts are described in the analytical article by Suraj Lakhani, a PhD candidate at the Police Science Institute at Cardiff University.

“In fact, Mohammed Merah had been known to the French police for a number of years due to his criminal activities. The preliminary reports coming out of France from the police and authorities are that he was of course not considered to be an immediate or direct threat,” the expert noted.

Moreover, Anthony Glees, professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham and director of its Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS) believes that it should be investigated why the authorities failed to prevent a series of crimes.

“Certainly questions about this are being asked in France. Police fear being seen as “snoopers” or “Stasi” officers. But my feeling is that this will turn out to be a case of incompetence combined with a “politically correct” wish not to take too great interest in French Muslims who have traveled to Pakistan or Afghanistan. It is by any accounts a serious police intelligence failure and the French authorities will need to think carefully about this fact,” the professor stated.

Nevertheless, according to the expert, European intelligence agencies have got very much better since 2005 and the ability to mine new sources of electronic data about serious crimes, including sex trafficking, fraud and terrorism, is certainly the way of the future. The analyst also added that the Internet is an important part of modern life and its influence cannot be diminished.

“Internet habits of modern users are well known today: people find dates and lovers online, for example, in a way which would not have been imaginable even ten years ago. Besides, nowadays thanks to the Internet, people can be part of a virtual, electronic group. So, of course, it is possible that a group of terrorists will support each other and give each other what they, wrongly, believe is the “courage” to murder innocent people,” Anthony Glees said.

That is why the director of BUCSIS thinks that the government should mine the data that exists on Internet traffic more intensively and more speedily. From his point of view, alleged criminals should be monitored by electronic sources. These measures aim to identify potential threat and prevent people from carrying out acts of terrorism.

“In the Merah case, as far as we can tell, it was not a problem of an “absence of evidence.” There was evidence but it was “absent” because the police did not actively mine it,” the professor said.

Moreover, according to Anthony Glees, terrorism is an attempt to make a political impact for a political cause whether this relies on a misinterpretation of Islam (as do the Islamists) or neo-Nazis.

“What radicalizes people? There are certainly psychological (even psychopathic) factors here, as well as political ones. We cannot stop people seeking to become radical extremists but we can stop people from becoming radical extremists by cutting off the contact to extremists, for example, or banning extremist preachers from visiting our shores,” the expert noted.

The director of Buckingham University’s Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies added that there is a much deeper problem.

“There are self-evidently very large numbers of Algerians and other Muslims from Arab North Africa now in the south of France and not only the south of France. Much will depend on whether these folk will accept the French way of life or use their numbers and the political leverage this offers them to push for a voluntary kind of separateness from French citizenry more generally. We have the same problem in the UK — you will have seen, perhaps, that George Galloway, Saddam Hussein’s friend, has just been elected an MP for a predominantly Muslim part of Bradford. Politicians are afraid of confronting this problem, so are academics for the main part,” the analyst declared.

Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said it is important for France not to mix Islam with terrorism and appealed for unity in the society. As he mentioned at his interview on French television, there are 5 mln. Muslims in the Republic (that is more than in any other country in Western Europe) and French Muslims “have nothing to do with terrorists.” Nicolas Sarkozy is confident that terrorism will not be able to divide the society.

The same view is shared by Dr. Andras Racz and Dr. Gergely Fejerdy, senior research fellows of Hungarian Institute of International Affairs. In their commentary to news agency PenzaNews they expressed the view that these attacks cannot lead to conflict between citizens of European origin and immigrants because “everybody is aware that this terrible case was committed only by a few individuals and not by the Muslims living in Europe collectively.”

“Decisive majority of Muslims who live in Europe intend to live peacefully, and do not want to commit terrorist attacks against innocent citizens. Even though there are problems with the integration in many European countries, Muslim and non-Muslim communities should discuss these issues peacefully, and search for mutually beneficial solutions together, in a normal, democratic way. And what is more important: both Muslims and non-Muslims know this, and they are committed to this,” the analysts noted.

Moreover, speaking about a series of gun attacks in Toulouse the experts believe that Mohammed Merah did not act completely alone because “it would have simply been impossible.”

“But though Merah did not act completely alone, it would be a mistake to perceive the attacks as part of a wider, large-scale network. It looks more like an action of a few radical individuals who did not belong to any known larger organized networks,” the analysts stated.

Meanwhile, Dr. Andras Racz and Dr. Gergely Fejerdy think that, according to the confession of Merah’s brother, none of these third parties thought that the situation was going to go to such an extreme – Merah suprised them as well.

“Besides, it is known that Mohammed Merah had certain mental problems, so he was far from being a stable cool-minded person. Originally Merah did not even intend to attack the Jewish school: in the beginning he wanted to attack some military target, as kind of a revenge for the Afghanistan war. Another element that showed the incoherence of his action was that one of the soldiers whom he killed was actually a Muslim,” the experts added.

Moreover, according to the senior research fellows of Hungarian Institute of International Affairs, at the time of the attack he was not under criminal prosecution or arrest.

“Of course, he already had a “rich” criminal record, but mostly for petty crimes: earlier he spent a year in prison, etc. However, at the time of the attack, as far as it is known, he was not under direct surveillance of the intelligence services. Hence, as nobody expected him to make such a radical move, unfortunately it could not be prevented,” the analysts stated.

Meanwhile, Dr. Quirine Eijkman, a senior researcher and lecturer at the Centre for Terrorism and Counterterrorism of Leiden University pointed to the difficulties in preventing such crimes.

“It is very difficult to predict people’s behavior. Even though they are under surveillance you cannot watch them 24 hours a day. It is very difficult to predict who after their trip to Afghanistan or Pakistan will commit an attack and who will not. The difficulty is to distinguish who is a real threat,” she said.

The expert also noted that in the framework of anti-terrorism protection it is necessary to determine the need for intensified information-sharing between intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

“There is a difference between gathering intelligence in the interests of national security and gathering evidence for criminal investigations. It is important for the intelligence services that their sources were secure. That is why intelligence agencies share only some information with the police,” the analyst stated.

Dr. Quirine Eijkman also questioned the legality of collecting intelligence data about people and then transferring it to law enforcement authorities.

“Even if data sharing applies to people who pose a real threat human rights law requires that appropriate safeguards against abuse are established,” the researcher noted.

The lecturer of Leiden University expressed concerns about anti-terrorism measures taken, because some of them, she believes, run counter to democracy and freedom of expression.

“After a series of murders in Toulouse Nicolas Sarkozy stated the need to strengthen counter-terrorism measures. But I am worried that side affects of such measures, for example monitoring the Internet, interferes with freedom of speech and freedom of access to the Internet. We have to understand that the far majority of Muslims are peaceful and want to participate in Western European society. So we have to be a bit careful about the counter-terrorism measures we take for they do not suppress legitimate opposition,” Dr. Quirine Eijkman concluded.

According to the data published in the book by Dr. Ramуn Spaaij, a reasercher at La Trobe University in Australia and the University of Amsterdam “Understanding Lone Wolf Terrorism: Global Patterns, Motivations and Prevention” over the last decade of the 20th century lone terrorists carried out 19 attacks in Europe, while in the period from 2000 to 2010 there were 40 lone wolf attaks.

Mohammed Merah (10 October 1988 – 22 March 2012) was a French citizen born in Toulouse, France in the family of Algerian immigrants. Before leaving school the future killer had already committed 18 petty crimes.

The criminal was interested in the ideas of radical Islam. In late 2000 he visited Afghanistan and Pakistan, after that he was put under surveillance by French intelligence agencies. In 2007 he was arrested in Kandahar on charges of possessing equipment to manufacture an explosive device. The court sentenced him to three years in prison, but in June 2008, Mohammed Mera escaped, like 1 thousand 200 other prisoners; it became possible due to an organized Taliban assault on city jail.

He returned in France only in August 2010. According to unconfirmed reports, he spent 2 years from June 2008 to August 2010 in the training camp al-Qaida on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Then Mohammed Merah applied to join the Foreign Legion, but he was denied due to his health.

On 11 March 2012 he shot in the head and killed Imad Ibn-Ziaten, Master Sergeant of the 1st Parachute Logistics Regiment. The second attack took place on 15 March 2012: two uniformed soldiers were then killed and a third was seriously injured outside a shopping centre in Montauban, around 50 km north of Toulouse, while withdrawing money from a cash machine. On 19 March 2012 Mohammed Merah attacked The Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse and killed 30-year-old Rabbi and teacher Jonathan Sandler; his two oldest children Aryeh, aged 6, and Gabriel, aged 3; and the head teacher’s daughter Miriam Monsonego, aged 8.