Not a step back

Several policemen at the doors of the church of Notre Dame de Nice, scene of the last attack in FranceERIC GAILLARD / AP

Almost three hundred people have died in France in the last decade in radical Islamist-inspired attacks.

The latter have had as victims three citizens killed yesterday in the Notre Dame de Nice basilica by an attacker armed with a knife.

This type of individual action represents a different modality from that of the great attacks of years ago.

The Islamic State - the last great organization in which this type of terrorism, otherwise ancient, was part - has lost its territorial base and the vast majority of its militants have been arrested or neutralized.

But he continues to radiate his destructive ideas, shared by radical Islamism, and also supported by those who show understanding of violence under the guise of alleged offenses against the Islamic religion.

There is no great news in such operations, known since 1989, when Ayatollah Khomeini uttered his fatwa against Salman Rushdie.

The objective is to achieve the regression of freedom and enlightened values ​​by desistance and self-censorship.

Under the excuse of Islamophobia, terrorism seeks to find legal shields that erode the heritage of freedom of conscience, creation and expression characteristic of the European cultural tradition.

French secularism, which protects both the practice of religions and the right to criticism, is a flag that Europeans cannot raise to appease those who claim to be offended by some drawings or literary texts.

The caricature of holy figures or prophets does not violate any right or limit any freedom.

There are no excuses or alibis for these disgusting actions.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led an offensive against Macron with a distorted interpretation of his defense of Republican and European values.

There is no going back a millimeter in that effort.

It must be done with intelligence - never to lend the flank to subjects who seek to foment sectarian agitation and polarization - firmness and maximum European unity.