BREAKING NEWS - Terror in France: SWC Statement and Reaction from Paris

The Simon Wiesenthal Center mourns the loss of the hostages taken at the kosher market in Paris. The world can no longer pretend that Islamist fundamentalists consist of a few isolatedcells. They have millions of adherents around the world of Muslim communities. These horrors will not end untilour political leaders come up with a global plan to identify, root out and destroy the cancer of Islamist extremism and until responsible leaders – religious and secular – go on the offensiveagainst their co-religionists who murder and maim innocents in the name of Allah,” stated Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, Founder and Dean and Associate Dean of the SimonWiesenthal Center.

Earlier reaction on the ground from Dr. Shimon Samuels, Paris-based Director for International Relations of the Simon Wiesenthal Center:

“The Jewish community feels itself on the edge of a seething volcano. Hostages in a Kosher supermarket held by an African Jihadist, who reportedly already killed two victims. Thoseheld are mainly women and children. On the other side of the city's suburbs, the two murders of the Charlie Hebdo atrocity are holed up with at least one hostage. The supermarket terrorist isidentified as an associate of the other two. He was responsible for killing a policewoman yesterday in southern Paris. The scenes are out of a war movie, surrounded by police and special forces.But the war is undeclared as long as the sickness is not publicly named as a State of Emergency. A culture of excuse exonerates the perpetrators as "disaffected, alienated, frustrated,unemployed.” No other group of frustrated unemployed has resorted to such behavior. Until politicians and media define the problem as Jihadism, remote-controlled from mosques in France and notonly the Middle East, the cancer will not be isolated and destroyed. The seething volcano is covered by a flimsy blanket of denial. The Jewish community knows only too well the impact of anexplosion. We pray this Shabbat for the hostages and calm for next week.”

EXPRESS YOUR SOLIDARITY WITH THE JEWISH COMMUNITY AND FRANCE #JeSuisCharlie‬ #‎JeSuisJuifFrançais‬ ‪#‎JeSuisCharlieJeSuisJuifFrançais‬

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agenciesincluding the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).