Europe under attack by Islamic terrorism

The resumption of Islamic terror within the borders of Europe finds European countries surprised and unprepared, focused on the pandemic and its health and economic effects. The impression is that European states have underestimated the threat and indirect connections of the attacks with foreign policy and the leading role of some international players, such as Turkey. The initial belief, now accepted for some time, that the military defeat of the Islamic State has generated a generalized resentment capable of creating what have been defined as “lone wolves”, extremists who act alone on their own personal impulse against the West, seems to be less and less certain in favor of the possible presence of a superior plan, conceived and organized in that gray area of ​​contacts between states and terrorist movements. The current aim of the provocations carried out with the death sentences carried out in Christian places of worship or in Western squares and streets seems to be to provoke a reaction against European Muslims capable of provoking a general uprising, even at an international level, of Muslim states against Europe. The ambition to lead this war of religion, but also of civilization, was publicly recognized by Turkish President Erdogan, who defined the treatment of Muslims in Europe as comparable to that reserved by Hitler for Jews. The significance of this statement speaks for itself, but highlights the clear intention to make a grip on a population with little critical spirit and eager to recognize itself in a common religious element as an instrument of recovery, including social. This is not only true in Turkey, but for the Ankara government it can be a means of exercising geopolitical supremacy also functional to Turkish geopolitical objectives, above all to make legitimate, to the Muslim audience of the faithful in general, but also to the governments of Muslim countries, the will to exercise a leading role capable of uniting the multitude of Muslim faithful, now divided; however, it does not seem possible that in Ankara there is the direct instigator of a terrorist strategy, which would be equivalent to a declaration of war, what seems most likely is the desire to exploit events to turn them to one’s advantage. The surprise is the lack of coordination at the political level of Westerners, who even in the most progressive sectors continue to maintain a sort of national rivalry with completely useless skirmishes. For example, the reaction of the Washington Post to the killing by the French of the Chechen terrorist protagonist of the beheading of the Parisian history professor, accusing the French government of targeting Muslim groups, appears singular. This example shows how a certain progressive part is still stuck in positions of principle, which are badly reconciled with the practical needs of the defense of Western values. What should be done, first of all on a cultural level, should be to involve the part of moderate Islam that has already managed to integrate in the West; certainly this cannot be enough because it is a minority part, which however has some fear of exposing itself against what, like it or not, is the majority part of Islam. In this phase, in addition to not derogating from democratic principles, especially in a possible repressive phase, a decisive preventive action is needed, capable of nipping every terrorist act in the bud, combined with a tight control of all those possible terrorist sources, such as radical mosques and groups extremists, who find space in the most degraded places in our societies. The streamlining of judicial operations is another essential prerequisite, together with the enactment of laws that make a certain type of proselytism difficult. In this regard, the sermons of places of worship should always be in the national language. It is also necessary to reduce the opportunities for protest, both national and international: the issue of cartoons, although the freedom of the press must be ensured, is an example of how to give the assumptions, certainly wrong, to terrorist action; this means that every single member of society must be aware of having to commit himself personally to protect the interests of Western values, even renouncing part of his prerogatives. The important thing is that the battle against terrorism maintains in any case and in any case its peculiarities of respect for civil rights, as a distinctive feature; this is the starting point in order not to provoke a confrontation of civilizations otherwise destined to get worse and from which we Westerners are the ones who have the most to lose.