New York - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy said during a meeting in Rouen on Monday that when we “look up pictures of jihadists, we are jihadists.”
The leader of the center-right party UMP criticized the French government during saying that “nothing was done” in terms of security to thwart terrorism since the Charlie Hebdo attacks last January.
President Sarkozy urged the current administration to go “further” in the protection of citizens, and proposed the creation of “centers of de-radicalization” to combat recruitment of new extremists, according to a report by French magazine, Le Point.
"We approved the state of emergency, house searches, decisions that were denied to us when we asked for them, but (...) we want to know what happened and why after the January attacks nothing was implemented" to avoid the Paris attacks of November 13, the former Head of State said at a rally in Normandy.
He went on to add that “the families (of the victims of the attacks) are entitled to turn to the responsible ones and ask: what were you waiting for during this type of dismissal, in the name of self-righteousness?”
Sarkozy regrets that “the Republic fell under the pressure of self-righteousness that prevented us to discuss what we wanted to discuss."
He recalled the criticism he endured over his speech in Grenoble in July 2010 during the debate on national identity when he said “that someone who has betrayed France should be stripped of French nationality."
Sarkozy implied that the government has not taken any steps to eradicate those who commit treason against France.
He also believes that those who look up pictures and information on terrorists online should be charged with terrorism.
"Forgive me for this, but when one consults pedophile pictures, one is a pedophile, when consulting images of jihadists, one is a jihadist, unless one is to prove that he/she is a professor performing research,” the former French leader said.
Sarkozy regrets that media is focusing its attention more on the Climate Change Conference (COP21) than in the problematic of the recent terrorist attacks.
"We must go further" and address the dire need for stronger national security in the fight against terrorism, he concluded.
The post Nicolas Sarkozy Says ‘When Looks up Pictures of Jihadists, We are Jihadists’ appeared first on Morocco World News.