New Paradigms for 21st Century Conflict

[Dominique R. Poirier]

Mr. Moore,
I find your comment is interesting, indeed; and I fully agree with you. I do not have much more to add, at that point.
I just began to read Marc Sageman’s book yesterday; Understanding Terror Networks. Though I am not finished I find this book very interesting in the sense that it is written by a serious and trustworthy person who approachrs things in a cold scientific manner.

Since I do not bring much contribution to your pertinent comment I remedy to this gap in reporting about a peculiar story--a priori unrelated to al-Qaeda in particular and to Muslim terrorism in general--which I believe is thought-provoking. Doubtless, you will not express any difficulty in finding where its interest lies.

On Monday June 22, 2007, in Britany, France, two young men and a young woman, respectively aged 20, 20 and 21, have been arrested by the French police on charge of burning the chapel de Loqueffret, a religious monument built during the XVIth century. They were part of a larger group of seven members suspected of having perpetrated multiple other related acts of vandalism against invaluable century old Christian religious symbols and monuments in the same region. While under interrogation the three young said that they acted entirely by their own and that what they did was a form of protest against “a monopolistic religious dominance” exereted by western Christianity that unjustly overthrew pagan religions in Europe, centuries ago (!). They claim to be themselves adept and practitioners of paganism and they expect a revival of paganism in Europe.

Here is the link, if ever you read French language:
http://tf1.lci.fr/infos/france/faits...fanation-.html

The three criminals do not belong to any religious organization of any sort, and they never received any instruction or exterior assistance.

This case doesn’t differ much from Islamist violence and intolerance, in my own opinion, but because what they did was unrelated to Islam the news of their arrest collected little interest, both from the media and the public.

Personally, I find this story interesting in the sense that it exemplifies that acts of violence and destruction done on behalf of religious claims can spontaneously occur in the most unexpected manner and for the most unexpected reasons. What else these three young men would have done if ever they had been smarter and more cautious? Other Church burnings, doubtless. Killings? Probably not, however. For they were unlikely to find exterior support, indoctrination and training on behalf of a Pagan religion in France.

However one may be tempted to hazard the guess that things would have been likely to turn otherwise if, instead of Paganism, they have expressed interest toward Islam. In all cases, we cannot but hold that they unmistakably belong to a category of persons we use to call religious fanatics; event though they didn’t kill or hurt someone. They did burn down one chapel and destroyed with sheer savagery numerous Christian monuments and painted some slogans and religious symbols of their own on many others; all marks of religious violence.

This case is no exception or singularity. It is the latest of a long list of exactly similar others perpetrated elsewhere in France during the last decade. But, according to the media, all attempts to find any link or relationship of any sort between their perpetrators proved to be fruitless. For, there is none, and there is no underground and organized pagan movement but some chitchats and mutual emulation on Internet. That’s all, and that’s why Church and chapel burnings and other forms of religious violence of this sort limit to isolated and sporadic cases unconnected each with others.

Is the mind of those perpetrators similar to this of a Muslim fanatic?