A sick, narcissistic death cult – but we will beat them

THIS was not just an attack on innocent life. It was an attack on our whole way of life. And so, when I look at the images from Paris, I feel not just grief and shock. I feel a deep and abiding sense of rage.

When the Islamist killers opened fire, they killed and maimed people who were entirely guiltless of any provocation or disrespect to their religion.

They murdered and maimed men and women who have had absolutely nothing to do with Western policy in Iraq or Syria – and who may well have been either entirely ignorant of the policies of President Francois Hollande, or indeed have disapproved of them.

They killed scores of people who were simply out for a night of fun and entertainment – and we are entitled to ask why. Why then? Why there?

Why did they come at night, and to those venues?

They chose darkness not just because they hoped for concealment, but because it is then – in the evening – that the City of Light is famously at its most romantic and beguiling. They attacked the crowds at a football match, at a rock concert, and in bars and restaurants and in the streets.

It was a vicious and premeditated onslaught on the very nightlife of Paris. And in attacking the nocturnal culture of this glorious European city, the Islamist killers were signalling their contempt for exactly those things that make Paris great.

These bars and clubs that they machine-gunned – what are they? They are places where men and women can come and talk, eat, drink, laugh, dance – openly, without embarrassment, without being asked to cover their faces.

They are places where people may hold hands in public, kiss in public – without recrimination or reprisals. They are the places that epitomise our Western culture, of democratic freedom, and tolerance, and equality between the sexes, where a day’s hard work is followed by the gentle hedonism of the evening.

It is that culture that is rejected by the Islamists in virtually all its aspects. Where we see personal happiness and fulfilment, they see behaviour that is somehow shameful or distasteful. Where we see civilisation, they see something they wish to destroy.

Remember that the killers are explicitly the followers of the so-called Islamic State of Syria. These are people who behead not just Christians and Yazidis, but Shias and other Muslims who dissent from their interpretation of Islam.

They murder women who are accused of adultery. They throw gays off cliffs. To call them medieval is an insult to the relative moderation of the Middle Ages.

There can be no compromise with this twisted ideology, no room for common ground – because their ambition is so wholly nihilistic.

They want to spread fear, and paranoia. They want to divide Muslim from Muslim – and above all they want to divide Muslims from the rest of the world; and therefore it is utterly vital that we remember again that these people do not represent Muslims, they do not speak for Muslims, and that they are rejected and despised by the over- whelming majority of Muslims. They belong to a sick, pathetic and very often narcissistic death cult.

As President Hollande rightly said yesterday, they must be defeated – and they will be defeated, both strategically and in the battle for hearts and minds. And that is because, in the end, their ideology offers no real hope or salvation for the troubles and anxieties of their followers; and for all its faults and frailties it is our approach – the way of freedom and tolerance – that is vastly more attractive to the human spirit.

Londoners regard Paris as our sister city, a place for which we have deep reserves of love and admiration and respect. We are both great capitals that stand for so much that is good about our civilisation.

Twice in the last 100 years we have fought for the protection of Paris. We stand side-by-side with the French today, in a struggle that embraces us all – and which we will win.