fawaz thank you for joining us.e search for the last suspect in the paris attacks. iew. and now angie's list is revolutionizing local service again. you can easily buy and schedule services from top-rated providers. conveniently stay up to date on progress. and effortlessly turn your photos into finished projects with our angie's list app. visit angieslist.com today. ♪ >> bingo! >> darn it! i was one square away from winning that game. >> it's a shame sadie isn't here today she always wins. coulda won the big prize. >> you know, that could have helped her with some of jim's funeral expenses. >> there wasn't any life insurance? >> no, there wasn't. i'd been trying to convince her to call about the colonial penn program to make sure they had coverage but she was worried they wouldn't be accepted because of their health. >> i have life insurance with them, too. i had concerns but i didn't have to take a physical or even answer any health questions. my acceptance was guaranteed. >> well, i should get some life insurance

and from london fawaz gerges at the london school of economics.st to you, and of course you're also the senior editor of "the islamic" founder and we follow you on twitter as well. what do you say to people who say, you know "charlie hebdo" drew pictures mocking the pope. you didn't have catholics massacring its journalists. why are these caricatures, these cartoons that after all, are only drawings creating a situation where terrorists feel it is their duty to conduct these mass killings? >> well hala i think the first thing that is important to keep in mind is that these cartoons were actually published five years ago. you know this wasn't like last week and this was some sort of instant retribution. you know we all remember the 2005 danish cartoon controversy when they published 12 incendiary cartoons of the prophet muhammad so that context needs to be put in place. at the end of the day, when you have three lone wolfs who decide to take matters into their own hands, you know that shouldn't be indicative or representative of you know the 1.7 bi

this put a fire to a tinder that was already burning. >> fawaz, in terms of how to assess some of thethese far-right grurngs groups, the international business times says france is a nation where mainstream discourse in the media has taken an islam phonetic tone that in the u.s. would be reserved for the extreme reaches of the right wing. how accurate do you think that is? >> probably it's a bit exaggerated and there is a sense that some muslims in france call hypersecularism. the french state is trying to impose a uniform set of ideas and i think this particular uniform set of ideas has had some backlash against some elements of the muslim community and has provided ammunition for the strikes. you cannot understand the choice of the target the newspaper charlie because charlie represents a symbol of the -- what i call the fundamentalist secular france and i think whoever was behind it whether it was al qaeda in the arabian peninsula in yemen or whether it was isis or whether it was a small network of militant i think what they are trying to say is that there is a clash of ideologies.

joining us is fawaz gerges, he's at the london school of economics. thank you very much for being with us tonight in the middle of the night. appreciate it. >> pleasure. >> what can you explain to us about why france has become such a target for terrorist attacks? i was struck today looking at some of the terrible isis propaganda how frequently france specifically is singled out by these international terrorist groups as being such an enemy for them. >> you know, rachel, for militants of al qaeda variety whether you're talking about isis or you're talking about al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, in yemen or whether the al qaeda, the parent organization, france today is public enemy number one. france today is a much more immediate enemy than the united states of america. this might come to you and your viewers really as surprising. why? for two reasons. french is -- france is deeply now engaged all-out war against militants in west africa and mali, in central africa, in north africa, iraq and syria. france really has taken on basically a mission as bi

joining us is fawaz gerges, he's at the london school of economics. thank you very much for being with us tonight in the middle of the night. appreciate it. >> pleasure. >> what can you explain to us about why france has become such a target for terrorist attacks? i was struck today looking at some of the terrible isis propaganda how frequently france specifically is singled out by these international terrorist groups as being such an enemy for them. >> you know, rachel, for militants of al qaeda variety whether you're talking about isis or you're talking about al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, in yemen or whether the al qaeda, the parent organization, france today is public enemy number one. france today is a much more immediate enemy than the united states of america. this might come to you and your viewers really as surprising. why? for two reasons. french is -- france is deeply now engaged all-out war against militants in west africa and mali, in central africa, in north africa, iraq and syria. france really has taken on basically a mission as bi

obviously much more on this throughout the show but for now don borelli and fawaz gerges. we'll have plenty more about paris as we continue on this saturday. coming up also to the world of politics and how the clinton era appears to be alive and well in job growth and cia facing felony charges for sharing state secrets with his mistress. we want to focus on some of the victims of the charlie hebdo shooting including the editor stephane charbonnier. he appeared on al qaeda's target list and once said i would rather die standing than live on my knees. he was never married and never had children. his long time girlfriend said it's because he knew he was going to die. charb might have had a sense the attack was imminent. it shows a man dressed in a style of islamic extremist and title reads, still no attacks in france? he still has until the end of january to come up with new year's wishes. stephane charbonnier was 47 years old. i know i have an 810 fico score, thanks to the tools and help on experian.com. and your big idea is hot dogs shaped like hamburgers? nope. hamburgers

. >> fawaz gerges from london appreciate your expertise. >>> so many of those foreign fighters that have made their way to syria to get trained with these terror groups many of them hailing from france which brings us to the present concern in paris. my colleague hala gorani is in paris. while this was a day of unity, now, i mean there are hardly any people behind you whereas we saw earlier in the millions or at least in the thousands. it's believed it could have been as many as a million if not more in paris alone and people coming out in great solidarity speaking in a unified voice that they want to get to the bottom of terrorism. they want to make sure that the freedoms in france are protected and that there will be a more concerted effort to reach out to those french who have proven to be very vulnerable who have maid the commitment to join these extremist groups. is there a renewed sense of hope that that france will feel like it can better communicate, better work with its resources of intelligence and law enforcement to get to the bottom of what is a very big problem right now? >>