Centre for the Analysis of Terrorism<\/a>, described the departures as a matter of \u201ccapillarity and emulation\u201d, saying: \u201cOne person goes, and then a whole bunch follow. Omsen has been active in Nice and the region for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\nIn his latest book, Gilles Kepel, a professor at the Sciences Po institution and an expert in the emergence of radical Islam, identifies the Senegal-born immigrant as a central player in the development of several French Islamist terror cells.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis name is linked to his exceptional online propagandist skills, which are key to understanding the reasons behind French jihadism,\u201d Mr Kepel writes.<\/p>\n
Beyond its glamorous image, Nice also features neighbourhoods that grapple with high crime and poverty. Many are located in the northeastern part of the town, where a large Tunisian community has settled. One is the Ariane district, where Omsen lived.<\/p>\n
One sign of the local anxiety over security and immigration is the shift by Nice\u2019s voters to the far-right National Party. Marion Marechal Le Pen, the niece of the far-right party leader, attracted more than a third of Nice\u2019s votes in the first round of regional elections in November last year.<\/p>\n
Born in Dakar, Omsen emigrated to Nice and settled in Ariane with his parents when he was seven.<\/p>\n
He became radicalised as early as 2011, after spending time in jail for armed robbery. Identified by authorities as a potential threat after he got in touch with a network funnelling French Muslims to Afghanistan and Pakistan, he was arrested a second time the same year. Omsen was released and expelled to Senegal in 2013.<\/p>\n
In a series of videos in 2012, dubbed \u201c19HH\u201d in reference to the 19 suicide bombers from the 9\/11 terror attacks \u2014 he tells the story of mankind through a lens of Muslim persecution. The film has proved a powerful propaganda tool to hook young people in France.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of jihadis I have interviewed refer to this video,\u201d Mr Micheron said.<\/p>\n
In Syria, Omsen, who has an international arrest warrant issued in his name, has become the self-proclaimed emir of a katiba, or fighting group, of French jihadis. Many of them hail from Nice.<\/p>\n
Anne-Sylvaine Chassany<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Source: Financial Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[62,83],"tags":[355,356,357,358],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}