Terror in France

Talk Thursday 15 January 2015, 7:00 PM

France is in mourning after three days of violence that saw 17 of its citizens killed. Violent events began on Wednesday 7 January with the brutal attack on the offices of satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo and ended two days later with sieges on two hostage sites.

As the country begins to come to terms with what has happened, we will be joined by a panel to take a view of events and to discuss the repercussions for society and security in France. We will also be tackling the arguments around the use of freedom of expression.

Chaired by James Coomarasamy, presenter of Newshour on the BBC World Service and former BBC Paris Correspondent. He has just returned from Paris where he was presenting Newshour on the World Service and The World Tonight on Radio 4.

The panel:

Maajid Nawaz is co-founder and chairman of Quilliam. His work is informed by years spent in his youth as a leadership member of a global Islamist group, and his gradual transformation towards liberal democratic values, documented in his autobiography Radical.

Natalie Nougayrède is a columnist, leader writer and foreign affairs commentator for The Guardian. She was previously executive editor and managing editor of Le Monde.

Peter Neumann is professor of security studies at the department of war studies, King’s College London, and serves as director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), which he founded in early 2008.

Nesrine Malik is a Sudanese-born writer and commentator, focusing on Middle Eastern politics and minority matters in the UK.