Jihadists are celebrating the burning of Notre Dame and warning vaguely, “Wait for the next.”
An ISIS-linked group issued the threatening message in a propaganda poster that showed Notre Dame in flames, the Daily Mail reported, citing a terrorism watchdog. It comes after ISIS propaganda circulated on Monday celebrating the cathedral’s partial destruction.
ISIS warns of cathedral attacks
The world was in mourning Monday as a random fire consumed Notre Damn. Precious art and relics inside the more than 800-year-old church were saved, and its structure miraculously survived, but its spire and roof were destroyed.
While no terror link has been established with the Notre Dame fire, ISIS-affiliated groups have jubilated at the damage done to this jewel of the West. As the cathedral burned Monday, ISIS propaganda group Al-Muntasir published a poster of the church engulfed in flames with the message, “Have a nice day,” the Daily Mail reported.
Notre Dame was previously the site of a terror scare in 2016 when three women were arrested near the cathedral, although reports said they were not targeting the church itself. France has also been the site of some of the worst Islamic terror attacks in the West in the 2010s, with deadly attacks as recently as December 2018.
Indeed, the Notre Dame cathedral fire set off speculation of foul play given the timing, just days before Easter, as well France’s recent history of terror and a spate of vandalism targeting churches throughout France since the beginning of this year. A church fire at St. Sulpice in March was ruled an arson, and vandals have allegedly knocked down tabernacles, desecrated the host and in one case smeared excrement on a cross.
Mainstream media have all but shut out reporting on the alleged vandalism. Notably, Fox dropped two individuals who brought up the vandal attacks on Monday; Catholic League president Bill Donohue and a Parisian local official were both cut off on-air after linking the vandalism to the Notre Dame fire.
Still, the fire has been ruled an accident for now. Investigators have not yet been able to enter the blackened church because of safety concerns, but said Thursday that the fire was most likely caused by an electrical short-circuit.
Progressives eye “modern” Notre Dame
While ISIS issues violent threats, threats of another kind against Notre Dame have surfaced — non-violent, but nevertheless worrisome. Some progressives have seen in Notre Dame’s destruction an opportunity to build something new in its place.
Rolling Stone sparked outrage with an article this week that asked suggestively, “What’s next?” for the cathedral and quoted a Harvard academic who said it was “liberating” for a cathedral so “overburdened with meaning” to burn.
The fire prompted an outpouring of international support and millions in donations as France’s president Emmanuel Macron pledged to rebuild the historic monument within five years. But Macron’s announcement of a global design contest set off concerns that the cathedral could be rebuilt to reflect modern, “progressive” sensibilities.
A poll by a French conservative newspaper found that 70% of respondents opposed any attempt to “modernize” Notre Dame.
“Since the spire wasn’t part of the original cathedral,” the Elysee Palace said in a statement late on Wednesday, “the President of the Republic hopes there will be some reflection and a contemporary architectural gesture might be envisaged.”
The debate over Notre Dame’s restoration has become a proxy for divisions between traditionalists who want the cathedral faithfully restored and leftists who are eager to build a “modern” structure that reflects an emerging post-Christian reality in France and much of Europe. Some progressives say the structure should be restored to reflect France’s newer, more secular and more diverse culture.
Notre Dame’s burning has also brought out some vitriol in the fever swamps of the far-left, with some expressing joy or indifference that a monument to Western “oppression” and colonialism was almost destroyed.
Others have complained about the wealth being lavished on Notre Dame by the super-rich, with some saying Notre Dame is receiving undue attention and resources to the detriment of the welfare of France’s poor as well as social justice causes in the U.S., like the water supply problem in Flint, Michigan and hurricane recovery in Puerto Rico.
No comments: