France is the European member state most affected by radical Islamic terrorism according to a study that shows over half of the terror attacks in the EU occurred in the country.
The study, which was released by the Foundation for Political Innovation (Fondapol), examined radical Islamic terror attacks from 1979 to August 31st of 2019 and discovered that France had been the victim of 71 attacks during that period which resulted in 317 killed, newspaper Le Figaro reports.
Between the period of 1979 and 2012, the country saw just 29 attacks and 45 killed, but in the era of the Islamic State terror group, the attacks increased to 42 with 272 deaths in just six years.
Around 54.3 percent of the attacks in which the Islamic State took credit occurred in France, with soldiers and police officers being the most frequent targets for terrorists.
The French capital of Paris and its surrounding no-go suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis have seen the most attacks, along with other regions that have noted problems with Islamic radicalisation.
France: Over 250 Convicted Islamic Terrorists Set for Prison Release by 2022 https://t.co/GunX8p2vAx
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The study also examined the global effect of Islamist terrorism, noting that there were 33,769 Islamic terror attacks worldwide from 1979 to 2019, and 167,096 killed as a result. The vast majority of the attacks, 89.1 percent, took place in majority Muslim countries and almost 90 percent were carried out by Sunni Muslims, they found.
The Islamic State is, according to the data, the most deadly of all of the radical terror groups during the period, accounting for a total of around 50,000 deaths.
France has also seen many thwarted attacks in recent years, with five major attacks foiled in the first few months of this year alone.
In one particularly gruesome plot, two Islamist militants plotted to take kindergarten children hostage, luring in police and then kill both the police and the young children. The would-be perpetrators were arrested in Paris before they could launch the plot.
Further plots could be on the horizon in the coming years as France expects to see over 250 terrorists released from prisons by the year 2022.
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