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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

I note that the first indications about who was behind this indicate that at least 3 of the people carrying out the attack were from Belgium (a suburb of Brussels to be precise) and that one entered the EU through Greece somewhere in October. I don't know anything about the rest of the attackers and that does not detract from the points made in the article but it is worth noting that this is not an issue confined to France but pan-European even though France has some unique elements that definitely factor into all this.

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The Procureur de la République indicated that the people who lived in Belgium were French. They are formally recognised as being French nationals who resided in Belgium.

One of the three suicide bombers at the Stade de France appears to have been of Syrian origin (they found a passport, belonging to someone born in 1990). They have not been able to confirm whether the passport belonged to the person who committed suicide.

One of the three terrorists at the Bataclan is confirmed to be French. They found one of his fingers, and the fingerprint matched someone who was known by the police, but not security services.

Please don't confuse everything.

Thank you for the correction that extra info was not in my source (Dutch news agency).

Even if none of them turn out to be from the banlieue the issues will be conflated, like they always are.

Just as, if none turn out to have been part of the immigrant wave, it will be conflated with that and the open borders issue.

Politics can be irrational even at the best of times, and this isn't the best of times...

> Politics can be irrational even at the best of times, and this isn't the best of times...

The people and institutions pushing these confusions and trying to signal who The Real Enemy is know exactly what they're doing.

Already in my Facebook feed I'm quoting information from 'slau because people are saying that the attackers are definitely immigrants because Syrian passport, while carefully ignoring the "French and the fingerprints" angle.

Is this french person Muslim? With immigration background?

If both answers are "no", you are right about selective blindness. If not, it is you who are ignoring an angle.

Technically, this comment is factually correct and also it is spot on. Some people trying to defend some ethnic groups in this thread are hypocrites.

I'm not sure it's pan-European. I would say that France and the french speaking Belgium share similar problems of exclusion and segregation, much more so than other European countries.

Instead of simply downvoting, could someone provide more insight into why you oppose this statement?

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