What the commentators said

The Berlin attack has all the hallmarks of Isis, said Peter Foster in The Daily Telegraph. The Islamist group has explicitly recommended the use of large vehicles as terrorist weapons: hence the July attack in Nice, when a truck ploughed through Bastille Day revellers, killing 86. As its so-called caliphate in Syria and Iraq begins to crumble, Isis is increasingly turning its attention to “sowing the seeds of division in Western societies”. In propaganda magazines, it calls on supporters to destroy what it calls the “grey zone” of tolerance that allows multicultural societies to coexist, forcing both sides to “choose between black and white”. The terrifying thing is, it’s working, said David A. Andelman on Cnn.com. Before the bodies had even been cleared away from Breitscheidplatz square, populist politicians were stoking up reactionary fury. Nigel Farage tweeted that “events like these will be the Merkel legacy”, while Donald Trump vowed that Islamist terrorists “must be eradicated from the face of the Earth”. Antiimmigrant, anti-muslim feeling is running high across Europe: far-right parties are resurgent in France, Germany, Austria, Poland and the Netherlands. Many want to follow the example of Brexit, abandoning the European Union in favour of “pull-up-the-drawbridge nationalism”.

Unfortunately, attacks like this are harder than ever to prevent, said Professor John Blaxland on The Conversation. The fact that so many terrorists now operate as “lone wolves” – inspired, but not directed, by Islamist groups – makes them extremely difficult to spot; especially in countries with a large population of disaffected immigrants such as France, Germany and Belgium. To make matters worse, Edward Snowden and others have blown the secrets of Western intelligence. Knowing the monitoring techniques used by security agencies has allowed terrorists to “dramatically alter” their online behaviour, thus evading detection.