European nations must stop flow of Islamic terrorists
Late last month, a Syrian asylum-seeker who was set to be deported detonated a nail-filled suicide bomb outside of an outdoor concert in southern Germany.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted that members of the Islamic State were among the more than 1 million migrants from destabilized areas of the Middle East and Africa whom she invited into her country.
In the days prior to the Bastille Day massacre in Nice, France’s intelligence chief warned that another attack on French soil or a mass sexual assault by migrants — similar to the one that occurred in Germany on New Year’s Eve — could result in a “civil war.”
The Dutch are investigating a possible jihadist cell in a refugee center in the Netherlands, and Norwegian police arrested a former Syrian al-Qaida fighter seeking asylum in Europe.
The perils to European citizens posed by refugees from failed states are no longer theoretical.
With Islamic State recruits and agents exploiting the crisis, enemies are literally massing at the gates of Europe.
The rapid proliferation of the Islamic State, the resurgence of al-Qaida, and the increasing strength and
reach of the Taliban pose a unique problem for the West as the groups all vie for impact and attention.
Unrealistic globalist policies decreed by European Union rulers in Brussels are inflaming the threat.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism in a recent study on the rise of global Islamic terror warned that Europe’s security systems will become severely stressed in 2016.
The crisis is straining the ties that bind Europe by threatening the unique national identities of its disparate populations.
The Schengen Agreement, passed in 1985 and in effect since 1995, largely erased borders in the EU and created conditions for jihadists to travel freely among member states once they gain a foothold on the continent.
The EU failed to uniformly strengthen borders with the greater region when it created the idealistic passport-free bloc. Those policies led to weak entry points in countries such as Italy and Greece that immigrants have exploited.
Jihadists don’t have much to fear once they arrive. A French journalist working undercover met with an extremist who bragged about his five-month jail term for terrorism and “how easy it is to bypass authorities.”
The EU failed to uniformly strengthen borders with the greater region when it created the idealistic passport-free bloc. Those policies led to weak entry points in countries such as Italy and Greece that immigrants have exploited.
Crucial intelligence gaps continue to derail security efforts.
Additionally, countries with smaller populations feel as though larger republics such as Germany and France dictate much of the policy approved in Brussels.
It is one matter for Germany to accept more than 1 million refugees, but it becomes an entirely new issue when EU bureaucrats propose to relocate those refugees among countries that cannot realistically accommodate them.
The situation could become more dire should the EU admit Turkey.
Following an attack by Islamists that killed 45 people at Istanbul’s airport, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the country would grant citizenship to millions of displaced Syrians within its borders.
Refugees are already squeezing the budgets of generous European welfare programs and causing civilian unrest within a public that feels threatened.
Starting with Britain’s vote to exit the EU, voters among member countries are considering a number of proposals that will restore law and order to the immigration process and protect their sovereignty.
Fences and more stringent controls along migrant smuggling routes have materialized in EU nations such as Switzerland, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia and Austria.
The desire for sovereignty is not some nebulous proposition. Americans fought a bloody war to achieve independence from Europe.
Similarly, the French prefer to stay French, the Germans intend to stay German, the Dutch Dutch, and the Norwegians Norwegian.
Countries in Europe can no longer sacrifice their demographics to an irrational multiculturalist ideology dictated by unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels.
The countries’ future national character and very existence may well depend upon their self-determination.
Pete Hoekstra, a former chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, is the Shillman Senior Fellow at the Investigative Project on Terrorism. Tribune Content Agency