New Study Reveals Molenbeek’s Influence on French Jihadism and Terror Attacks

"French Jihadism" by the teacher at Sciences Po is an investigation carried out over five years during which 80 jihadists were interviewed, particularly in prisons.

On the La Première radio, Hugo Micheron explained the predominant role played by Molenbeek in the radicalization of the perpetrators of the Paris and Brussels attacks, and many other jihadists, in recent years.

"Five years after the Charlie Hebdo massacre to the Bataclan massacre, this book remains the first account of the substance of the process that has seen French jihadism grow. This movement, born in the enclosed neighborhoods of working-class suburbs, led its members to pass through the Daesh caliphate in the Levant to the prisons of the hexagon," he said.

The author adopts the thesis that Molenbeek has been the European epicenter of jihadism. Islam has been favored, not only by imams from Saudi Arabia, but also by Salafist literature in French that is found nowhere else in Europe. "The authorities must act by putting the means," he insisted.

Contacted by RTBF, the mayor of Molenbeek, Catherine Moureaux, through her spokesperson Rachid Barghouti, said she had not read this book. "Some people from Molenbeek went to Syria; but to say that the starting point is Molenbeek, it’s a bit short. We haven’t read the book; so maybe it’s more nuanced," he said.