How a terrorist’s words from the grave threaten France and its Jews

This summer has had more than its share of violence targeting innocents. There was the lone gunman who entered a bar in Alabama and shot 17 strangers. A few days later, James Eagen Holmes killed 12 and injured 58 moviegoers during a midnight attack at an Aurora, Colorado theatre.

Those tragedies were widely described as "senseless,” since there was no apparent ideological motivation behind the massacres.

Such was not the case when Wade Michael Page entered a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and murdered six parishioners in cold blood. Page was part of a subculture of hate in America that reviles religious and ethnic minorities. For over a decade he contributed to neo-Nazi, white supremacist movements through his hate music.

The universal revulsion following Page’s rampage engendered wall-to-wall solidarity from politicians and interfaith leaders, bringing a measure of solace and reassurance to Sikhs and even forcing some of Page’s musical colleagues to disassociate themselves from his heinous crime.

Across the Atlantic in France, Europe’s largest Jewish community is also still reeling from a series of brutal attacks. There was the shocking murder --execution style -- of a 7-year-old girl, a rabbi and his two small children in the entrance of a Jewish school in Toulouse by Mohamed Merah, a French Islamist fanatic, followed by an unexpected upsurge in violent attacks targeting Jewish youngsters across the country.

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