Community Magazine January 2016

way of living, and they are trying to prevent us from living the way we live, so this is a big, big problem. CM: It’s an ideological problem, and they don’t like that we breathe. Karsenty: Exactly. They don’t like the way we live; they don’t like the fact that women aren’t wearing long skirts, that women have freedoms to go where they want, that there is male and female equality, that we are drinking alcohol, eating what we want to eat, and they want to impose the opposite. And this is my main concern. With the invasion of Europe [by Muslims] that we’re facing now, even if you only have a few people inside who are terrorists, I would say even with a few you can put a country down. The vast majority of the people who are coming are not sharing our values. They are not cherishing democracy. CM: After the Hebdo attacks, were the French more prepared? Are they more prepared now? Karsenty: My real concern is, a fewmonths ago we had a terrorist attack aborted in a train. Thank Gd we had three American soldiers that saved us, and prevented the terrorist from killing people in the train. After that, nothing happened. And now, all of a sudden, they had a terrorist attack which worked, which was efficient according to their point of view. Only then the [authorities] caught some bad guys in some of the suburbs. It is really time for the state, for the French government, to be on the offensive. We have to go after them, not to wait for them to act. You know anytime you go in front of a synagogue, a Jewish environment, or something related to the media, you have policemen. Meaning, that they’re waiting for the [terrorist] guy. No, we shouldn’t be waiting for them; we should be catching them, we should be going into all the basements and taking out the weapons. That’s the main problem. We have no-go zones in France [areas which are off limits to non-Muslims, which are governed by Islamic Sharia law], and we have to clean this. CM: What does that mean, a no-go zone? Karsenty: It means no police, no firemen. The state doesn’t have the right to go into some areas, because if they go there, they’re going to be shot. They’re in danger. CM: Reports say that after the November attacks, there were 200 police raids, yielding heavy weapons caches, including a rocket launcher. Did the police act on intelligence which had been ignored before? Karsenty: I don’t believe there was ignored intelligence. They knew. More than 15 years ago I had a friend living in the suburbs who said “We have Kalashnikovs. We have everything in the basement, and we’re just waiting to get out of there, and go to war.” My idea is that if I knew this, if people told me, I’m sure the police knew that. They were hoping for miracles. You know, we had a miracle on the train, and they were hoping for more miracles, but miracles are miracles, they don’t happen every day. CM: How do the terrorists finance their activities in France? Karsenty: TheArab banks …we allow these banks to function in our countries. We should prevent them from functioning, because these people are the ones working with our enemies…I’m talking about extremist Arab Muslim money… [They’re] trying to take control of the youth in the country, and they’re trying to expand their ideology. And it’s exactly what we want to avoid. CM: How many Muslims are in France? Karsenty: People talk about 8 million, people talk about 12. We don’t know. You know about the ostrich that puts its head in the sand? There’s a law which says that we don’t have the right to count people according to their religion. Aguy said once on the radio that 80percent of the people in jails inFrancewereMuslim.The statistics came from people working in the jail. But the guy was accused of Islamophobia. CM: What is France’s total population? Karsenty: 65 million, 20 percent are Muslim… In some areas they are taking over. Meaning, in some places in France, you don’t have any Muslims, but in some areas in the north or the south, their population is growing and they are becoming more and more powerful. And of course, around Paris you have some areas that are really totally controlled by Muslims. On January 7, 2015, two brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Armed with assault rifles and other weapons, they killed 11 people and injured 11 others in the building. After leaving, they killed a French National Police officer outside the building. The gunmen identified themselves as belonging to the Islamist terrorist group – Al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen. TEVET - SHEVAT 5776 JANUARY 2016 35