The High Quarterly

Earlier today, on the 3rd February, France was once again struck by a terrorist attack. This time it took the shape of a machete attack on a soldier in the ‘Carousel’ area beneath the Louvre’s iconic glass pyramid. The soldiers were patrolling the area after a series of high profile terror attacks in France, including the Paris attacks of November 2015, the Nice attack of July 2016 and the murder of a priest in Rouen in July 2016. The attacker, reportedly a 29-year old Egyptian, was stopped by soldiers when trying to enter Carrousel du Louvre, a shopping centre beneath the museum. This is when he attacked the soldiers wielding a knife, with one reportedly sustaining an injury to his scalp, shouting ‘Allahu akbar’. He was then shot multiple times, but is alive and receiving emergency medical treatment.

The French Prime Minister, Bernard Cazenueve, has said the attack is obviously ‘terrorist in nature’ and French President François Hollande said in a tweet  that he ‘salutes the courage and the determination shown by the soldiers’ in the attack. Others however, gained a different message from the attack, with Donald Trump tweeting ‘ A new radical Islamic terrorist has just attacked in Louvre Museum in Paris. Tourists were locked down. France on edge again. GET SMART U.S.’ and many moving in to use the attack as support for Trump’s recent immigration ban on seven majority-Muslim countries, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. This attack comes with the French presidential election less than three months away, with security and terrorism among the key issues. 

Nina Halgarth L6KEL