"Mohammed Merah, the man who claimed responsibility for killing three French soldiers, a rabbi and three young children at a Jewish school, was killed by French security forces on Thursday. But his murderous rampage is likely to fuel anxiety over the threat of homegrown terrorism.
President Nicolas Sarkozy deserves credit in calling for public solidarity, saying “we must be united,” and adding that “we must yield neither to easy falsehoods nor to vengeance.” He can help that cause by changing his tone in the presidential election campaign, where immigration and religion had become divisive themes. Just last week, he had sought to woo anti-Muslim voters from his rival on the extreme right, Marine Le Pen of the National Front.
Mr. Merah, a French citizen of Algerian descent, was a violent thug and self-proclaimed Al Qaeda sympathizer. Police officials said they had been monitoring him for several years, following trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan where he said he had trained with terror groups. The first killing, of a French paratrooper in Toulouse, took place on March 11. The next attack, four days later, killed two more paratroopers in a nearby town. And four days after that came the killings of the rabbi and three young children. Officials are investigating whether Mr. Merah acted alone, as well as gathering more details about his past.
In response to these killings, Mr. Sarkozy has proposed tightening some laws, but his approach seems far too broad. He would make it a crime to repeatedly view Web sites that advocate terrorism and would take action against French residents who travel abroad for training or “indoctrination” by terror groups. It is not clear how such rules would be carried out, or if they can be without curtailing the rights of law-abiding people.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/opinion/the-aftermath-in-toulouse.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120323
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