French Interior Minister: We are Permanently Threatened by 'Islamist Terrorism', Extremists are Mostly Mentally Ill

Gerald Darmanin, the French Interior Minister, referring to last week's terrorist attack in Paris, stated, "Our country is permanently threatened by Islamist terrorism." He added in an interview with a television network on Monday: "According to our scientific research and studies, more than one-third of radicalized Islamic individuals under surveillance suffer from mental health issues; therefore, the law must give authorities more power to impose psychiatric treatment on these individuals." A man armed with a knife and hammer attacked people near the Eiffel Tower on Saturday evening, killing a German tourist and injuring two others, including a British citizen. Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, described the attack as terrorist. The suspect of this terrorist attack was identified as 'Armand Rajabpour Miyandoab' and was quickly arrested. The chief anti-terrorism prosecutor of France stated that Rajabpour had recorded a video in Arabic before the attack, pledging allegiance to ISIS and supporting Islamic extremists in various regions around the world, including Africa, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Iran, and Pakistan. Jean-François Ricard added that Rajabpour Miyandoab faces preliminary charges of murder in connection with a terrorist operation. Armand Rajabpour Miyandoab was born in 1997 in a city near Paris, in a family without religious affiliations and originally Iranian. According to the French prosecutor, he converted to Islam at the age of 18 and quickly adhered to extremist Islamic ideology. In 2016, he intended to join ISIS in Syria but was convicted that same year for planning violence and was imprisoned for four years until 2020. The prosecutor confirmed that he had been undergoing psychiatric treatment and was on a special list of 'dangerous radicals.' Jean-François Ricard added that Rajabpour Miyandoab remained under the surveillance of intelligence services, and in October, his mother expressed concern about his behavior, but no evidence was found that could lead to criminal prosecution. Previously, European security officials had warned about the increasing threat of Islamist attacks amid the Israel-Hamas war, suggesting that this series of terrorist attacks represents the greatest threat from 'lone wolf' attackers, making them difficult to track. France has been on high alert since the increase in security levels in September when a Chechen man killed a teacher with a knife in a school in northern France. This attack in central Paris occurs less than eight months before hosting the Olympic Games in the French capital and may raise questions about the security of this global sporting event.