Terror in France by Kepel Gilles; Jardin Antoine;

Author:Kepel, Gilles; Jardin, Antoine;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2017-03-18T04:00:00+00:00

THE LUNEL PARADIGM

These same diverse ingredients were present in the small town of Lunel, located in the département of Hérault in southwestern France. In 2014, some members of the media started calling it the “capital of French jihad” because six men from there had died in Syria—a tenth of all the French jihadists who died that year (the fatalities more than doubled in 2015, and by the time of this writing in 2016, two additional men from Lunel had died there). Moreover, about twenty Lunel residents left for Syria—the exact number is difficult to determine, because unlike the families of converted young people, who immediately report their children’s disappearance to the authorities of a French state with which they identify, some parents of immigrant origin remain silent in order to avoid disapproval or because they regard the infidel state with suspicion, fear, or indifference and do not want to attract its attention.8

Because only about twenty-five thousand people live in Lunel, the proportion of jihadists who left for Syria suddenly became the highest in France in 2014 (the following year, it was overtaken by Trappes, a city of equivalent size in the département of Yvelines, near Paris, whence there were more than eighty departures). In addition to the media hype, which brought dozens of journalists from all over the world to this commune locally known mainly for its Muscat wine, for its bullfights, and, among scholars, for the cultural influence of its medieval Jewish community, the case of Lunel is exemplary of the motifs and processes through which jihadism attracts young French people from various origins.

Located about twenty kilometers from Montpellier and from Nîmes, the region’s two main labor pools, Lunel shared the economic decline of the rest of the wine-producing southwest, of which Béziers offers another striking example. (In 2014 the citizens of Béziers elected as its mayor the far-right politician Robert Ménard, a noted journalist and former founder of “Reporters without Borders,” who received the support of the National Front.) Lunel’s economic decline led to a fall in real estate prices, a deterioration of its downtown, and a subsequent attraction into the area of destitute people with immigrant backgrounds, along with problems of crime and drug dealing. Local politicians and business leaders have responded to these circumstances by attempting to turn the banlieue of Lunel into an affordable bedroom community for Montpellier and Nîmes.

The population of Lunel has tripled over the last thirty years, and a second town, consisting of tracts of residential subdivisions, a few low-cost housing projects surrounded by greenery and industrial zones, and shopping centers amid enormous parking lots, was built alongside the old city, which has retained, in its round shape, the trace of its ancient ramparts. Recent immigrants are among many of the newcomers—12 percent, according to an agency of the French state responsible for the collection and dissemination of economic statistics.9 Taking all nationalities together, the head of the local mosque has estimated that six thousand Muslims live in the city, for about a quarter of the total population.

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