There is a new Islamist terror threat in Europe that the French describe as ‘low-cost terrorism’. The expression was deployed in a television interview at the start of this week by Bruno Retailleau, the Minister of the Interior. Warning France that Islamic State is ‘reconstituting themselves in Africa and elsewhere’, Retailleau said that the other menace was the individual extremist acting on his own initiative. Unskilled in bomb-making and with no access to firearms, these ‘low-cost’ Islamists kill with knives or behind the wheel of a car.
One of these ‘low-cost’ extremists was last week jailed for life by a French court. In October 2020, Tunisian Brahim Aouissaoui murdered three Christians with a knife outside a church in Nice. It was a ferocious assault; one of the victims, a 44-year-old woman, was stabbed 25 times.
During his trial, Aouissaoui justified his actions by claiming: ‘You, the West, kill Muslims, women and children.
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