Mohammed Merah

Mohammed Merah (October 10, 1988 - March 22, 2012) was a French self-proclaimed jihadist who admitted to killing seven people, including three children, in several shootings in southwestern France in March 2012. He was killed on 22 March 2012 following a police siege and standoff.

Biography

Merah filmed all of the killings using a GoPro camera strapped to his body. He made a video of them set to music and verses of the Koran. He sent the video to news agency Al Jazeera. After a request from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Al Jazeera decided against airing the video. One video shows Merah shooting two French Muslim soldiers in Montauban, and shouting Allahu Akbar.

He targeted French Army soldiers as well as children and teachers at a Jewish school. Merah admitted Anti-Semitic motivations for his attack. Seven people were killed and five wounded. On 11 March, Merah shot dead an off-duty French Army paratrooper in Toulouse. On 15 March, he killed two off-duty uniformed French soldiers and seriously wounded another in Montauban. On 19 March, he opened fire at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish day school in Toulouse, killing a rabbi and three children, also wounding four others. Merah filmed his attacks with a body-worn camera.

Thereafter, France raised its Vigipirate, the terror alert system, to the highest level in the Midi-Pyrénées region and surrounding departements. The United Nations, many governments around the world and the French Council of the Muslim Faith condemned the attacks. The gunman, Mohammed Merah, was a 23-year-old French petty criminal of Algerian descent who was born and raised in Toulouse. He claimed allegiance to Al-Qaeda and said he carried out his attacks because of France's participation in the War in Afghanistan and its ban on Islamic face veils, and justified his attack on the Jewish school because "The Jews kill our brothers and sisters in Palestine". He was killed on 22 March by a police tactical unit after a 30-hour siege at his rented apartment there, during which he wounded six agents. His brother and another man were later convicted of taking part in a "terrorist conspiracy" over the attacks.

Some media have described Merah as an "Islamic terrorist". Merah said that he resented France's ban on women wearing the burqa, and that "the Jews have killed our brothers and sisters in Palestine."

He also wanted to avenge the French Army's involvement in the war in Afghanistan. An editor at France 24 reported that Merah told him that these acts were not only necessary, but that they were to "uphold the honour of Islam". During the murders, Merah said, "you killed my brothers, I kill you." Journalist Ed West described this as an expression of tribalism, not religion.

Mohammed Merah's older brother, Abdelghani, said that Mohammed was raised in an "atmosphere of racism and hatred." He blamed his family for Mohammed's attraction to extremist Islamism and antisemitism. Merah's sister Souad said, "I am proud of my brother. He fought until the end... Jews, and all those who massacre Muslims, I detest them." Abdelghani stated that, during their childhood, their mother frequently stated that Arabs were born to hate Jews, and that there may be more "Mohammed Merahs" if families were allowed to teach such hatred. In 2003, Mohammed stabbed Abdelghani seven times as the latter refused to give up his Jewish girlfriend.

Dan Bilefsky linked Merah's anger to the high unemployment and alienation of young immigrants in France, and said this affected his development as a self-styled jihadist. Canadian journalist Rosie DiManno argued that Merah was motivated neither by religion nor the treatment of immigrants in France. She noted that while Merah had familial links with militant Islam (his mother was married to the father of Sabri Essid, who was arrested in 2007 at an al-Qaeda safe house in Syria for militants en route to Iraq), there was no evidence that Merah was involved with militant groups or even any religious congregation. DiManno characterized Merah as a sociopath who "sought posthumous grandeur" and adopted a terror agenda as a cover for his pre-existing rage.