The spread of Islamic terror

Barcelona has now joined Paris, Brussels, Nice, Manchester, London, and Munich, among others, whose populations have suffered from Islamic terrorist attacks.

Over the past few years, the template chosen has remained the same – low-tech weapons such as a truck or van, a handful of extremists that have been radicalized, a soft target such as people watching a fireworks display (Nice), youngsters at a concert (Manchester) and people walking and promenading (Barcelona).

The victims had done nothing to provoke the attack. On the contrary, they were as normal as could be, including in their midst even people of Muslim faith both in Barcelona and in Nice. The deaths were random – those who happened to be there, those who found themselves in the path of the truck/van turned into a weapon of mass destruction.

It is through such attacks that Islamic extremists wage a war declared only by themselves against the West, the heirs of the Christian tradition, a success story that has ensured affluence, a high standard of living, a better future for its citizens built out of the rubble of the Second World War.

This Europe has not declared war on Islam; on

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the contrary, it is the Islamic extremist fringe that has declared unprovoked war on the West, which it hates with an indescribable hatred.

The lesson of these attacks is that no one is safe from such attacks. The chosen victims are not soldiers at a war: they are inert, peaceful citizens, probably enjoying themselves on a holiday or at a national festivity.

Now, after such attacks, people are taking all sorts of precautions. The security services have increased their state of alert and this year’s 14 July celebrations in Nice saw an almighty state of alert and massive precautions that, had they been taken last year, would have impeded the truck from its death-dealing run.

But today is too late for those who were killed and their bereaving families.

Nor is it right to blame the security forces. Certainly, we are speaking of the attacks that have taken place but there have been other attacks that were thwarted.

One must also praise the security forces for the speed with which they identified the culprits and found them out. That shows a level of penetration of the possible perpetrators that is admirable were it not for the simple fact that for all the information available these people could still carry out their attacks and, as in the Barcelona case, could prepare a far more devastating attack that fortunately they could not mount.

No one, we said, is safe from such attacks. Not even countries, such as ours, which has till today not had to face up to such an attack. That is why it is highly important for our security forces to be ever on the alert and for our population to prepare itself for such a dreadful eventuality. We must not find out whether our security is adequate only in the aftermath of such an attack.

We, the rest of the citizens, must learn to understand the new and terrible world we are living in. As the citizens of the stricken cities, we must not allow the terrorists to shut us up in fear and terror. On the contrary, we must carry on with our lives.

We must learn to accept a higher level of intrusion in our lives by the security forces who, after all, are only defending us. And we must stop spouting nonsense, as we do when we blame immigration for such attacks. The recent attacks have all been the fruit of persons who were born in the country they then attacked.