Nadine Osman

A teen extremist inspired by Adolf Hitler was detained by French counter-terrorism police, on September 28, for planning to attack a high school and a mosque North West of the country.

According to Le Parisien, the 19-year-old, dubbed Simon by the newspaper, planned to attack the high school he attended and a nearby mosque in the Seine-Maritime.

The General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) detained and brought him before a counterterrorism judge on October 1.

The paper said the self-proclaimed “white and nationalist fighter” had planned to execute the attack on April 20, 2022, to commemorate Hitler’s birthday and before the second round of presidential elections in France.

It said there were 20 knives, at least three guns and 20 notebooks bearing the title of Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf, at his house.

In the notebooks, he refers to the 1999 Columbine shooting in the US and Anders Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist behind the attacks in Oslo and Utøya, which claimed 77 lives in 2011.
He also spreads himself in supremacist, sexist remarks, defining himself as a “white and nationalist fighter”.

It reported that Simon planned the attack in response to repeatedly being sexually assaulted and harassed by classmates at a young age, and that he had a list of 30 people to target. Simon also accused the Government of not fighting “radical Islam” adequately in his plea to police, said the report.