Opinion: Two Heroes

01/15/2015 - 11h37

The Paris killers, Amedy Coulibaly (32) and the two Kouachi brothers (Said, 34 and Cherif, 32), were linked to the Buttes-Chaumont group, named after the public park in north-eastern Paris, where a group of young Muslim men were involved in the recruitment of French Muslims to fight against the Americans in Iraq.

The group was broken up by the French security services in 2005. But they were subsequently underestimated as a potential threat. Cherif was under surveillance by French intelligence between November 2011 and December 2013, and Said until July 2014.

But this was stopped, despite the fact that Cerif Kouachi was hardened in his radicalization in the French prison system, where he met Coulibaly. Said Kouachi spend time with Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen.

The Kouachi brothers were French born of French Algerian descent. Coulibaly was French born of Senegalese immigrant family.

They were not unlike the Nigerian descended British born Muslim converts, Michael Adebolajo (29) and Michael Adebowale (22), who in May 3013, brutally murdered Lee Rigby, the 25 year old British army fusilier, on the street outside his barracks in south-east London.

They were also known to MI5, the British security service, and Adebowale had been arrested in Kenya when attempting join al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda affliliated group in Somalia.

But they were also not under surveillance at the time of the attack on Lee Rigby. The world leaders gathered in Paris (predictably) all wanted more powers of surveillance. The problem is they do not use (effectively) those they already have.

There are two heroes of the tragic events in Paris over the past week. The first is Yohan Cohen. He was 22 and Jewish. He was shot in cold bood by Amedy Couliably. He was killed, together with three other hostages, at the Hyper Cache supermarket near the Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris.

Yohan Cohen had worked there for a year, and he had attempted to save a three-year old boy by seizing Coulibaly's weapon. He was shot in the head. Yohan Cohen was a rap singer (You-Tube/Yoyan Cohen/Boi Kala). His parents had immigrated to France from North Africa in the 1960s.

His father came from Algeria and his mother from Tunisia. He was buried in Jerusalem on Tuesday

The second is Ahmed Merabet (40) the first police officer to arrive outside the offices of Charlie Hebdo where the Kouachi brothers had just gunned down 12 journalists.

Ahmed Merabit was on foot when he was shot and wounded.One of the brothers calmly walked over and shot him in the head. Ahmed Merabet was born in France, the son of Algerian immigrants, who had come to France in the mid-1950s, and was brought up in Livry-Gargan north of Paris.

He was buried in the Muslim cemetery at Bobiggny Seine-Saint-Denis also on Tuesday.

Ahmed Merabet's brother, Malek Merabet, said in his eulogy:

"My brother was a Muslim and he was killed by people who pretend to be Muslims. They are terrorists.That's it. My brother was French, Algerian, and of the Muslim Religion. He was very proud of the name of Ahmed Merabat, proud to represent the French police, and to defend the values of the Republic: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. I address myself now to all the racists, Islamophobes, and anti-Semites. One must not confuse extremists with Muslims. Madness has neither colour nor religion. I want to make another point. Stop painting everyone with the same brush. Stop burning mosques and synagogues. You are attacking people. It will not bring back our dead. And it will not appease our families."