The Impact of Paris Bomb

Adhitya Choirul Latif

D0412004

Jurusan Hubungan Internasional

Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu
Politik
Universitas Sebelas Maret
Surakarta
2015

The term of "Terrorism" comes from the French word

terrorisme, and originally referred specifically to state terrorism
as practiced by the French government during the 17931794
Reign of Terror. The French word terrorisme in turn derives from
the Latin verb terrere (e, terreo) meaning "to frighten". i The
terror cimbricus was a panic and state of emergency in Rome in
response to the approach of warriors of the Cimbri tribe in 105
BCE. The Jacobins cited this precedent when imposing the Reign
of Terror during the French Revolution. After the Jacobins lost
power, the word "terrorist" became a term of abuse. Although
"terrorism"

originally

referred

to

acts

committed

by

government, currently it usually refers to the killing of innocent

people for political purposes in such a way as to create a media
spectacle. This meaning can be traced back to Sergey Nechayev,
who described himself as a "terrorist". Nechayev founded the
Russian terrorist group "People's Retribution" in 1869.ii
There is no universally agreed-on definition of terrorism.
But most universally accepted definition of terrorism is the
use of violence to create fear (i.e., terror, psychic fear) for (1)
political, (2) religious, or (3) ideological reasons (ideologies are
systems of belief derived from worldviews that frame human
social and political conditions). The terror is intentionally aimed
at noncombatant targets (civilians, government, and iconic
symbols), and the objective is to achieve the greatest attainable
publicity for a group, cause, or individual. The meaning of
terrorism is socially constructed. Terrorism is different from
murder, assault, arson, demolition of property, or the threat of
the same; the reason is that the impact of terrorist violence and
damage reaches more than the immediate target victims
(government or military). It is also directed at targets consisting
of a larger spectrum of society (civilians or even society as a

whole). Terrorism is distinct from regular crime because of its

powerful objectives. The change is desired so desperately that
the inability to achieve change is perceived as a worse
consequence than the deaths of civilians.iii
On September 11, 2001, the first modern terrorist attack
occurred, nineteen men affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four
commercial passenger jet airliners, crashing two of them into the
World Trade Center in New York City and one into the Pentagon.
As a result of the attacks, the World Trade Center's twin towers
completely collapsed, and 2,977 victims and the 19 hijackers
died. The United States responded to the attacks by launching
the War on Terror. Specifically, on October 7, 2001, it invaded
Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, which had harbored al-Qaeda
terrorists. On October 26, 2001, the U.S. enacted the Patriot Act,
anti-terrorism legislation that expanded the powers of U.S. law
enforcement and intelligence agencies. Many countries followed
with similar legislation. After war on terror action that started by
the U.S it seems that the terrorist organization is evolved and
getting bigger. As the result ISIS is born in Syria just soon after
Syria collapsed with Arab spring.
On November 2015, multiple shooting and grenade attacks
occurred on a Friday night in Paris, France, among the locations
targeted were a music venue, sports stadium and several bar
and restaurant terrace, it was the single deadliest terrorist attack
in French history and second in Europe since the 2004 Madrid
bombings. . 90 persons were killed during a siege at an Eagles of
Death Metal concert inside the Bataclan. French president
Franois Hollande evacuated from a football match between
France and Germany at the Stade de France, slated venue for the
UEFA Euro 2016 Final, after three separate suicide bombings over
the course of about 40 minutes. ISIS claimed responsibility for

the attacks and President Hollande named the Paris attacks an

"'act of war'".iv
Jihad seems to hit France harder than other countries, with
more than 1,000 young people leaving to fight on the side of ISIS
or other jihadis in Iraq and Syria, and now the murderous attack
by two men of Algerian descent on the satirical weekly Charlie
Hebdo. Why, and where will this latest attack lead? There are
three points to keep in mind as we watch the investigations play
out.
First, France has been more closely engaged with the
Muslim world longer than any other Western country. Since 1830,
when it conquered Algeria, it has seen much of Muslim Africa as
its own backyard. And after World War I, France took control of
Syria and Lebanon as well. Many French settled in North Africa,
and after World War II, many North Africans came to France to
work in new factories, most settling in poor areas in Paris, Lyon,
and the industrialized north. In the post-industrial era, factories
were shut down but the settlers stayed. And it is their children
and grandchildren who in 2005 exploded in rage over their
exclusion from French society. The 1995 movie La Haine showed
this rage before the factand also made clear that these
explosions had nothing to with religion.
France left Algeria only at the end of a long and bloody war,
from 1954 to 1962, which continues to reverberate throughout
the country, especially in the south, where Algerians who fought
on both sides of the war settled in Provence and kept the conflict
alive. Here is where the far-right National Front was founded by
Jean-Marie Le Pen, a paratrooper nourishing anger against De
Gaulles abandonment of French Algeria. His daughter Marine
now leads the party.

But unlike other European colonial powers, the French

never really left their former colonies, continuing to intervene
economically and militarily to defend Frances national interests
in Africa and the Near East. Now this means battling al Qaeda
and ISIS in Mali, Iraq, and, perhaps in the future, Syria. So when
disaffected young men and women tune in to jihadi web sites,
they find French-speaking Muslims telling them of the sins their
government is committing against their brothers and sisters in
Iraq and Syria. Resentment at French racism, at the series of
largely symbolic measures taken against Muslims, such as the
2010 ban on wearing face-veils in public, add to this anger, and
lead some towards fighting.
Second, the French Republic has nourished a sense of
combat with the Churchwhich for some means with religion of
any sort. If in the 19th century, the Church retained its hold on
young minds through its monopoly of primary schools, by the
end of that century the state had built a secular and free system
of schools. Thereafter, the Dreyfus affair pitted an openly antiSemitic

Catholic

establishment

against

pro-Republican

intellectuals, Vichy gave powers to anti-Jewish French officials,

and after the war schools continued to be the focal point, a
microcosm, of the battle between religious and secularist camps.
Modern France thus produced a strong tradition, especially
in Paris, of opposition to organized religion, and satire of its
pretensions. Charlie Hebdo succeeded a long line of satirical
magazines that ridiculed religion, and Charlie took down all with
pretensions: Christians, Muslims, Michael Jacksoneveryone.
Third, the attack risks to add fuel to the rise of the Far
Right in France and throughout Europe. The National Front is
already

spinning

the

attack

as

showing

up

the

basic

incompatibility of Islam and the values of France. Even as its

leader, Marine Le Pen, the much smoother political heir to her

father, Jean-Marie, maintains a moderate line, officially stating
that France was united for freedom of expression, she added that
the time for hypocrisy was over, and that not confusing Islam
with terrorism not ought to lead us to deny the obvious. Some of
her lieutenants went further, attacking Islam directly, and the
immediate commentators

to Le Mondes on-line coverage

overwhelmingly took this line: anti-religion and anti-Islam.

France will not change its decades-old foreign policy, nor
are rights and practices of satire likely to fade away. But the main
impact may be to use the attacks as an excuse to blame Islam
and immigration for broad anxieties about where things are
going in Europe today. Such a confusion can only strengthen the
far right.v
The main impact of the Paris bomb attack is France "at
war," that statement is declared by Francois Hollande on Monday,
the president delivering a charged speech following Fridays
attacks in Paris. Speaking to a rare joint sitting of both houses of
parliament in Versailles, Hollande said a bill to extend the state of
emergency for three months would be tabled this week, while
promising he was committed to "not just containing, but
destroying" the Islamic State group that claimed responsibility for
last weeks massacre.
Hollande urged lawmakers to approve a three-month
extension of the nation's state of emergency, new laws that
would allow authorities to strip the citizenship from French-born
terrorists and provisions making it easier to deport suspected
terrorists. He also proposed adding 5,000 positions to the
country's national paramilitary police force and said he would not
propose cuts in the nation's defense spending until at least 2019.
He said France would intensify its attacks on ISIS and called for a

U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss the worldwide threat

posed by the group.vi "We are not committed to a war of
civilizations, because

these

assassins

don't

represent

any

civilization," Hollande said. "We are in a war against terrorism,

jihadism, which threatens the whole world." "Terrorism will not
destroy France, because France will destroy it," Hollande said.
French jets bomb ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria; few may have
been killed.
With the emergence statement of "France is at war" other
European countries, especially UK and America, are supporting
forward the movement that led by France to destroying the ISIS
in Syria, which also the second largest anti-terrorism act after the
invasion of American troops to Al-Qaeda base in Iraq, on 2002.

iReferensi Kim Campbell, Christian Science Monitor, When is 'terrorist' a subjective term?,
http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0927/p16s2-wogi.html, Diakses pada 27 Desember 2015,
18.00 WIB, Surakarta.

ii Arnold, Kathleen R., ed, Anti-Immigration in the United States: A Historical

Encyclopedia, https://books.google.com/books?id=raS9TqUFb94C&pg=PA461, Diakses
pada 27 Desember 2015, 19.00 WIB, Surakarta.
iii What is terrorism, sage publications,
http://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/51172_ch_1.pdf, Diakses
pada 27 Desember 2015, 19.00 WIB, Surakarta.
iv BBC News, Paris attacks: Hollande blames Islamic State for 'act of war,
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34820016,
v Three Reasons France Became a Target for Jihad, TIME,
http://time.com/3660002/france-muslim-africa-organized-religion/, Diakses pada 27
Desember 2015, 20.00 WIB, Surakarta.
vi CNN, 'France is at war,' President Francois Hollande says after ISIS attack,
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/16/world/paris-attacks/, Diakses pada 27 Desember
2015, 21.00 WIB, Surakarta.