French press review 10 January 2015

There is, of course, wall to wall coverage in graphic detail of the bloody end to the Charlie Hebdo affair in today’s French papers.

French special forces yesterday tracked down and killed three gunmen - two brothers who slaughtered 12 people at the satirical magazine in Paris on Wednesday and a third man who shot dead a policewoman in the capital on Thursday. Yesterday four hostages held by the third man at a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris were killed during the police assault.

The three gunmen were Muslims. The two brothers, who were born in France of Algerian origin, claimed links with the Islamist group al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsular and to have been trained by jihadists in Yemen.

As well as the on the spot reporting, the papers take time to reflect on the bigger picture - for example, the likely consequences for French society.

The centrist paper Le Monde carries a map showing where people have staged sympathy rallies in France and neighbouring countries - both to express their grief and their determination to preserve France's tradition of freedom of speech. Dozens of orange dots show demonstrations already staged and dozens of green dots show demonstrations and marches still to come. The slogan and hash tag that unites them is "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie).

In the words of Le Figaro, "I am Charlie" are three little words which have become the symbol of a global emotion. They appeared an hour after the attack on Wednesday at 12.52 and will remain as a symbol of the national unity that has emerged since then.

However, Le Monde tells readers, the sympathy and solidarity is not universal. It has a report from Saint Denis, a poor suburb to the north of Paris, with a large population of immigrant-origin families.

"In Saint-Denis high school students are not all 'Charlie'," runs the headline.

In fact "I'm not Charlie" was the phrase written on a suspicious package found yesterday in the staff room of the Paul Eluard high school there. There was no bomb, reports Le Monde, but there were wires and a detonator.

The mostly Muslim teenage students at the school observed the nationwide minute's silence for the dead but some said it made them feel uncomfortable.

"I did it for those who were killed, but not for Charlie. I have no pity for him. He has zero respect for us Muslims," one said. Some youngsters, reported Le Monde, saw a contradiction in the prosecution of Dieudonné, a black comedian prosecuted for anti-Semitism, and the invoking of freedom of speech in defence of cartoons in the satirical magazine that insult religion.

In recent hours, says Le Monde, the hash tag #JenesuispasCharlie is being used on Twitter.

The front-page headline in left-leaning Libération includes the phrase "three blood-soaked days that shook France".

On its opinion pages Libé declares "The attack on Charlie Hebdo - Muslims in France do not have to justify themselves."

To require the Muslims of France to condemn this act is religious labelling, Libé argues.

When the Ku Klux Klan hanged blacks in the name of the white Christian supremacy, no one demanded that the American Christian clergy dissociate themselves. Over the three decades of attacks by the Red Army Faction in Germany, no one demanded that the German left reaffirm its commitment to democracy. In France in the 1980s no one thought to suspect the far left of direct action attacks. Why? Because in all these cases it would have been absurd, ridiculous and frankly stupid.

Millions of Muslims in France, the paper says, are people without stories just wanting to live in peace. They are as horrified by this attack as anyone. There is nothing of which to suspect them. They don't have to apologise for anything.

The sub-text here seems to be fear of a backlash against France's Muslim minority by the non-Muslim majority. No doubt Libé is not alone in wanting to avoid France being a battleground in a clash of civilisations.

The popular daily Le Parisien leads its front page with a police mugshot of the one that got away. That's Hayat Boumeddiene, a young woman identified as the companion of Amedy Coulibaly, also pictured. He looks defiant. She looks exhausted.

The woman is suspected of having been with Coulibaly when he killed the policewoman on Thursday and may also have been with him yesterday during the hostage taking at the kosher supermarket.

Coulibaly was killed as police freed hostages there. But "she was not among the dead or wounded", the paper tells us.

It is the latest twist in a tragic and tangled tale.