After Charlie Hebdo : The French and European Anti-Cult Policy Reaction

The Charlie Hebdo incident in France, in January 2015 created an awareness of a growing issue that had been, until then, more or less overlooked by the population. The jihad, which has been the main interest of the anti-cult policies these last years, became not only an international concern, with the steady increase in power of jihadist groups, but also a national problem.

Each year, hundreds of young people leave the european territory to fight alongside the jihadists in Syria. To protect these youths, the anti-cult policy, which importance on the political agenda had dwindled these last years in France, has been renewed and special institutions were created and are in development.

This paper will first dwell on the renewal in Europe of the anti-cult policies, explaining the differences between France and its nearby countries on the subject of religion and cults, with some insight on the religious history of each of the studied countries. The different relationships to islam in Europe will be compared.

Secondly, we will analyse the crisis that is created by the augmentation of radical muslim beliefs in Europe, and its synchronicity with the advent of Daech, presenting the links with the increase of conspirational theories on the internet underground. The main point is to explain the increased complexity of the political crisis management by the states and Europe because of the preponderant part of the internet in contemporary politics, from the creation of a cognitive field to the political affiliation of an individual.