Reports: France launches predawn raid in school killing case

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Anti Semitism

A new book written by his brother supports your claim:


How my hate-filled family spawned Merah the monster


Brother's book blames parents for Toulouse scooter assassin's killing spree

The oldest brother of the Toulouse scooter killer, Mohamed Merah, denounces his own father, mother, sister and brother for their roles in spawning a "monster" in his book published tomorrow.

Abdelghani Merah, 36, says the youngest of his four siblings was raised in an "atmosphere of racism and hatred" but also of violence and neglect.

He has written the book Mon Frere, ce terroriste (my brother the terrorist) to try to counter the hero-worship of Mohamed, 23, among some young French Muslims.

"I am the killer's brother but I am on the side of his victims," he says.

Mohamed Merah murdered seven people, including three Jewish children, in a series of scooter-borne attacks in the Toulouse area in March. He was killed resisting arrest after a 36-hour police siege of his flat on March 22.

In the book, a newspaper interview and television documentary, Abdelghani Merah blames his parents for the way they raised their five children. He accuses his father, a convicted drug-dealer, of repeated child-beating and his mother of neglect.

But he blames Mohamed's attraction to the teachings of extremist and anti-Semitic Islam mostly on his own sister, Souad, and brother, Abdelkader.

For a television documentary to promote the book broadcast on Monday, Abdelghani helped to film his sister secretly as she proclaimed her "pride" in Mohamed and declared her hatred of Jews.

The second Merah brother, Abdelkader, 30, has been under arrest since March and is under investigation for complicity in the murders.

Souad Merah, 32, has been questioned but has not been linked to the attacks.

In the documentary on the M6 TV channel, Souad was seen and heard saying: "I am proud of my brother. He fought until the end ..."

The young woman, who has links with the fundamentalist Salafist Islamic movement, says at one point that she suspects she is being recorded. But she goes on: "Mohamed had the courage to act. I am proud, proud, proud - Jews and all those who massacre Muslims ... I detest them."

She is now the subject of a criminal investigation, judicial sources say.

The probe will establish whether she breached French law that prevents individuals from publicly defending terrorist acts.

In his book, Abdelghani Merah describes Abdelkader, or "Kader", as a "tumour".

He recalls that in 2003 his brother stabbed him seven times after he refused to give up a girlfriend with Jewish origins.

At the time, he said, he warned police in Toulouse that if there was ever a terrorist attack in the city they "only need to go after Kader".

In his book, Merah paints a miserable picture of his own and especially of Mohamed's childhood.

He says his father, also called Mohamed Merah, "beat me so much that I could no longer feel the blows. He also struck Abdelkader a great deal. Mohamed less so, because he was too small."

The future killer was 4 years old when his father abandoned the family and became a drug dealer, for which he was convicted and jailed.

His mother, Zoulikha, then in her 30s, "went out all the time, had all kinds of scrapes and left Mohamed alone all day in front of the TV".

At the age of 8, Mohamed was placed in care.

"My mother said to him, 'Stay there during the week and I'll come for you at weekends.' But she would never come and it drove him mad with unhappiness."

Merah also recalls visiting his mother's house for a wake for Mohamed.

There were whoops of joy, he said. People were congratulating his mother and saying, "Be proud. Your son brought France to its knees."

"I screamed: 'My brother is not a hero. He is a common assassin."'

How my hate-filled family spawned Merah the monster - Europe - World - The Independent

Sister of al Qaeda-inspired killer to sue French TV channel

(Reuters) - The sister of an al Qaeda-inspired gunman who killed seven people in France plans to sue a television channel that broadcast secretly filmed footage of her saying she was proud of her brother, her lawyer said.

Souad Merah, sister of Mohamed Merah, the 24-year-old who killed three Jewish children, a rabbi and three soldiers last March, plans to sue TV channel M6, which acknowledges the footage in question was recorded on hidden camera.

"Naturally, Souad Merah is going to file a complaint," her lawyer, Christian Etelin, told Reuters.

State prosecutors ordered an inquiry on Monday to establish whether the woman could be pursued for condoning terrorism after M6 aired the documentary in which she made the incriminating remarks to another brother.

Mohamed Merah died in a hail of police bullets as he jumped, gun-in-hand, from a window of his apartment in the southwestern city of Toulouse after a 30-hour siege.

One of his brothers, Abdelkader Merah, has been placed under judicial inquiry after admitting he helped Mohamed steal a scooter used in the killing spree, but says he did not know how the scooter would be used and denies any role in the shootings.

In the M6 documentary, Souad Merah addresses another brother, Abdelghani, who has just published a book unreservedly condemning Mohamed Merah.

In the conversation recorded on hidden camera, she says of Mohamed : "I'm proud of my brother. He fought to the very end."

She also said she thought highly of dead al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"She (Souad) feels she was trapped and betrayed by her brother (Abdelghani)," her lawyer Etelin said.

(Reporting by Guillaume Serries in Toulouse and Gerard Bon in Paris; Writing by Brian Love; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Sister of al Qaeda-inspired killer to sue French TV channel | Reuters

 

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French imams visit Yad Vashem, say life is more important than holy books

'No religion justifies killing,’ Drancy’s Muslim community head writes in visitors’ book at Holocaust memorial'

French Imam's lay a wreath at the Holocaust memorial site in Yad Vashem, Tuesday (photo credit: Yoav Ari Dudkevitch/Flash90)

A group of 20 French imams visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on Tuesday as part of a five-day trip to Israel.

Drancy’s imam, Hassen Chalghoumi, said during the visit that human lives are more important than holy books.

“If I lived during the time [of the Holocaust] I’d be on the side of those saving Jews. No religion justifies killing,” Chalghoumi wrote in the visitors book.

The delegation held a memorial ceremony at the Yad Vashem remembrance tent and viewed the museum section dedicated to the million and a half children who were killed.

After their trip to the Holocaust memorial, the religious leaders visited the graves of those shot by a terrorist in Toulouse in March 2012.

The group is in Israel for a visit designed to dispel the belief that France’s Muslim community is anti-Semitic, Maariv reported last week.

“Unfortunately French Muslims are seen as being anti-Semitic,” said Chalghoumi, who has been to Israel three times in the past. During his last visit, the Imam told the Times of Israel the Holocaust was “not [only] the history of the Jewish people, it is our history as well.” He spoke about the importance of education and learning. “By protecting this history, we protect the history of minorities,” he said.

According to Chalghoumi, he repeatedly receives threats over his interfaith work and had to prevent news of the planned visit from getting out, fearing extremists would try to prevent it.

During the visit, which is being aided by the French Foreign Ministry, the imams are meeting with President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The clergymen are also visiting Jerusalem’s holy Muslim sites and hold meetings with Jewish, Muslim and Christian spiritual leaders, intellectuals and youth.

“Our image in the world has been sullied and we must remedy it in the name of tolerance,” said the group’s members in a statement. “We are the true face of French Muslims.”

On November 2, French President Francois Hollande accompanied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Toulouse, where the two leaders participated in a memorial ceremony for the three children and a rabbi who were murdered by radical Islamist Mohammed Merah in March.

In his speech, Hollande said that he would promote new legislation against hate speech.

“We will tear off all the masks, all the pretexts, of anti-Semitic hate,” Hollande said. Addressing Netanyahu, he added: “I would like to remind you of the determination with which the French Republic has confronted anti-Semitism, not only with words, but with actions.”

French imams visit Yad Vashem, say life is more important than holy books | The Times of Israel