On June 11, 2014, Canadian MP Irwin Cotler and Avi Benlolo was part of the 20-member international Jewish delegation that met French President Hollande. The main issue that was raised during the meeting was the continuing threats from French-born Jihadists returning from Syria.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean and Founder of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, said that the French Jewish community is under unprecedented attack by “forces of extremism both from the Far-Right and from extreme Islamist purveyors of religious intolerance violence and murder.” And that the recent French-born Islamist extremist murderers were “revered by many young Muslims, here in France and around the world.”

Rabbi Marvin Hier also added that: “we believe the main reason is that religious leadership of the Muslim communities remains part of the problem, not part of the solution” and that “French-born terrorists, like other terrorists were not born with hate in their hearts…”

Simon Weisenthal Center (June 11, 2014): Wiesenthal Center Delegation meets with French President François Hollande at Élysée Palace

Further reading

Point de Bascule : Index 4 Radicalization

CBC News (June 8, 2006) : Teacher witnessed transformation of some bomb-plot suspects

Stewart Bell (National Post – January 3, 2013) : Islamist extremists radicalizing Canadians at ‘large number of venues’ secret report reveals

Canadian Security Intelligence Service (February 14, 2012): Venues of Sunni Islamist Radicalization in Canada

Micheal Coren (The Arena-Sun TV – April 15, 2014): Point de Bascule director comments on threats made by jihadists operating in Syria to attack Canada