Attacks in France / Terrorism in Euope
Two days ago, there was the horrible attack on the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Yesterday there were reports of another attack in France and a policewoman killed. Today I'm watching live images of a small village north of Paris on television, I understand I'm watching a possible hostage situation. New reports are now coming in that there's been a shooting, at least one injured, possibly as much as five or six people held hostage at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris, likely linked to the other attacks. Two hostage situations going on relatively close to each other in France. The latest reports indicate two hostages at the kosher supermarket may have died already.
How many more will be killed today? Will there be another terrorist attack tomorrow and if so, where will it be? How many more lives will be disrupted and torn apart by terror?
"The goal of the attack on the office of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo was not to frighten newspaper editors so that they would not publish one cartoon or another. The goal was to show and prove who controls the streets and consciousness of the French Republic: The Western liberalism or the fanatical Islam. This is a clash of civilizations, not a gang's intimidation campaign."
"The journalists who were murdered in Paris on Wednesday were therefore not victims of a battle over the freedom of the press. They were victims of a war between the world view of radical Islam and the world view of Western humanism, a war which will go on and increase and claim victims until it is won by one side."
~ Islam vs. West: An ongoing clash of civilizations | Ynet News
I live less than a day's drive away from Paris, France and the surrounding area where all this is going on. I've been to France myself multiple times. I look at the images on my television screen and see buildings that look like buildings I know near my home. I know enough French to read the words on my screen and know what they mean without needing to translate them first. To say that I 'suddenly realise' that radical Islam has come to Europe is nonsense as I know better than that. However the danger does feel more real today than it did only a few years ago. More imminent, more threatening. More likely to impact my life because it is so much closer to home than events in relatively far-away places like Iraq or Syria.
Two days ago I wrote a blog post in Dutch about the Charlie Hebdo attack. In that post, I wrote that it feels like 'not a day goes by without reports about violence by Islamic extremists somewhere in the world'. Today I write those words in English as well. Without having to ask Google, I know of recent attacks that have taken place in Canada, Australia, France, Egypt, Israel, Belgium, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan. The goal seems to be terror, destruction and death, whether attacks are by lone wolves or by supporters of organisations like Al Qaeda, Hamas, Boko Haram, Islamic Jihad, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Taliban, Hezbollah or the Islamic State.
How many more will be killed today? When and where will the next attack be? How many more lives will be disrupted and torn apart by terror? Is "a war which will go on and increase and claim victims until it is won by one side" inevitable or can that grim fate be averted? Only time will tell.
