Reframing the Enemy after France’s 9/11– Yet Again

Nov 14, 2015, 1:13 PM

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On January 17, 2015, I wrote an essay, Reframing the Enemy, after the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine and the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris. Now France has endured its second and far worse “9/11.” Yet unlike the terrorists who attacked the United States on 9/11, today’s killers may not be based outside France. They may very well be French citizens. France may thus now be at war with enemies who probably live within its borders. Hence, I am posting “Reframing the Enemy” this evening yet again. French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls said in January that his country was at war with radical Islam. The terrorists yelled “Allahu Akbar” as they murdered French citizens. Valls was right. Tragically, “Reframing the Enemy” is as relevant this evening as it was eleven months ago.

About the Author

Jeffrey Herf is Distinguished University Professor, Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. He has published extensively on modern German and European history, and its intersection with the Middle East. His recent publications include Three Faces of Antisemitism: Right, Left, and Islamist (Routledge, 2024), and “Free Palestine Terrorism,” The Free Press, (June 1, 2025).