In an interview with a French newspaper Thursday, a woman claimed that she had warned authorities that the Al-Qaeda connected terrorist who killed four people in Toulouse earlier this week, Mohammed Merah, was a dangerous terrorist who needed to be stopped. The warning was ignored, however, and Merah remained free to carry out the murders of Rabbi Yonatan Sandler, and his sons Aryeh, and Gavriel, 3, and 8-year-old Miryam Monsenego.
The woman, identified only as Aisha, told French daily Le Telegram that Merah had tried in 2010 to recruit her son for the “worldwide Jihad” he was organizing for. She remembered Merah, and said that when she heard what he had done, “I felt as if someone cut off my legs. That they did not stop him was a terrible gaffe on the part of the authorities. I filed complaints against him numerous times, over and over” - but to no avail, she said.
In 2010, the woman and her then-15 year old son lived in the same neighborhood as Merah in Toulouse. She said that Merah had been friendly with her son, and on one occasion took him into a car, and played for him a CD with Islamist preachers urging listeners to take part in Jihad. Merah then took her son to his apartment – the same one the terrorist is now holed up in – and showed him a giant Quran, and showed him Al-Qaeda produced propaganda films, all the while holding a sword over him. The films showed scenes that were very difficult for the 15 year old to stomach, including beheadings. “My son called me and begged me to get him out of there. In the end we succeeded. He was held there from 5 in the afternoon until midnight,” Aisha said.
The woman said she filed a complaint with police over the incident, angering Merah. “He came to our house, threatened me, and eventually hit me. He said I was an atheist, and that I would have to 'pay' like the French would.” Two days later, she said, Merah attacked her in public, and beat her son and daughter, who had intervened to protect her. “No one stopped to get involved,” she said. As evidence of the story, she presented the paper with the police complaint she had taken out in 2010 against Merah.
Aisha added that the real “brains” behind the Merah Jihad operation was Abdelkader Merah, the terrorist's brother. “He was the one who was always traveling abroad” to organize missions, she said. As far as Mohammed Merah was concerned, Aisha said, he is “two-faced,” or at least confused. “He can drink beer one minute,” a violation of Islamic law, “and go to a mosque the next minute.”