Islamic Extremists threaten to burn down Notre Dome Cathedral in Paris | WATCH
A viral video threatens to burn Notre Dame Cathedral unless a convicted terrorist is released. The footage is extremely concerning and Paris police have ramped up their efforts to protect religious sites.
A video showing Islamic extremists threatening to burn down Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has gone viral on social media, demanding the release of Brahim Aouissaoui (also spelled Ibrahim Alisaoui or Issaoui), the Tunisian national convicted of killing three people in a 2020 knife attack at Notre Dame Basilica in Nice. The footage, which first surfaced in January 2025 with false claims linking it to Syria's Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, has been recirculated on social media over the past few days, 2025, sparking renewed alarm amid ongoing global tensions over the Israel-Hamas war since October 2023.
The video features masked individuals in keffiyehs speaking Arabic, stating: "We demand the French government release our brother Ibrahim Alisaoui. If he is not released, the wrath of God will fall upon your people here in France; your next churches will burn." It explicitly ties the threat to Aouissaoui, who carried out the October 29, 2020, attack at the Nice basilica, stabbing to death two women and one man in what French authorities classified as an Islamic terrorist attack.
Aouissaoui, a 21-year-old Tunisian migrant at the time, entered France irregularly and had a history of petty crimes. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2025 following a trial that highlighted his radicalization and mental health issues, as detailed by the Counter Extremism Project. The attack, one of several jihadist incidents in France, killed Vincent Loques (a 55-year-old sexton), Nadine Devillers (60), and a 54-year-old man.
Tommy Robinson, among many others, shared the video, alongside calls to "get these people out of our societies." Other posts, such as those from Dominik Tarczyński MEP and Faraz Pervaiz, frame it as evidence of jihadist threats against churches, linking it to broader concerns over immigration and terrorism.
French authorities have not issued an official response to the recirculated video, but the timing coincides with heightened security around religious sites, especially after the 2019 Notre Dame fire (accidental) and a suspected arson at Quebec's Notre Dame Cathedral in October 2024. President Emmanuel Macron's recent push for Palestinian statehood and meetings with Syrian figures like Ahmed Al-Sharaa (formerly Al-Jolani of HTS) have fueled speculation in some posts about political motivations, though no evidence supports direct ties to this threat.