The Local.fr — Feb 9, 2016

MURDER MOST FOUL “Funny though: no pool of blood, no brains splattered on the sidewalk.”

Terrorists shoot a man dead outside the offices of Charlie Hebdo. In the words of one youngster: “You can’t see any blood in the video”… He gets a bullet through the head but there’s no blood – only dust?”

The French government aims to crack down on the spreading of conspiracy theories in France’s schools surrounding the recent terror attacks, because they are giving fuel to those seeking to radicalize young people.

There have been conspiracy theories for as long as anyone remembered. Did Kennedy really die? Was there ever a man on the moon? Was September 11th an inside job?

And now that massive terror-related news stories have struck France – and hard – a whole host of conspiracies have cropped up among kids eager to share the latest snippet from the internet.

French Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. Click to enlarge

French Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. Click to enlarge

And they are proving to be a growing concern for the French government desperately trying to battle radicalization among young people, who have a tendency not to believe the official version of the story.

Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem spent Tuesday hosting a conference on the topic of fighting the spread of conspiracies at schools.

The all-day conference, held at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, saw around 300 people in attendance, including students, teachers, psychologists and lawyers.

The aim is to start a discussion about the dangers of conspiracy theories, especially after terror attacks set tongues wagging in French school yards over the past year.

One group of 16-year-olds told the BFM TV channel that there was something “fishy”, for example, about the death of the policeman during last January’s terror attacks.

“You can’t see any blood in the video,” said a boy called Julien. “He gets a bullet through the head but there’s no blood – only dust?”

Other popular conspiracy theories include:

· That the knife-wielding man killed by police last month in northern Paris had a knife and an Isis flag planted on him by police.
· That the getaway car used by the Kouachi brothers in the Charlie Hebdo attack was not the same one recovered later by police.
· That a passport found at the Bataclan concert hall after terrorists killed 90 people in November had links to documents found at ground zero in New York after September 11th.

And it’s exactly these kinds of rumours the government wants to crack down on, fearing that pupils take the conspiracies seriously because they’re easy to find online.
 
Rudy Reichstadt, who started the French site “Conspiracy Watch“, said that theories are spreading far quicker than ever before.
 
“Teenagers have always been fascinated by the mysteries. But before, they’d have to go out and buy a book about it,” told Le Figaro newspaper.
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