The Islamic Future of Europe
by Guy Millière, Gatestone Institute:
The terrorist attack in Barcelona received the same reaction as all the large-scale terrorist attacks in Europe: tears, prayers, flowers, candles, teddy bears, and protestations that “Islam means peace “. When people gathered to demand tougher measures against the rising influence of Islamism across the continent, they were confronted by an “anti-fascist” rally. Muslims organized a demonstration to defend Islam; they claimed that Muslims living in Spain are the “main victims” of terrorism. The president of the Spanish Federation of Islamic Religious Societies, Mounir Benjelloun El Andaloussi, spoke of a “conspiracy against Islam” and said that terrorists were “instruments” of Islamophobic hatred. The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, cried in front of the cameras and said that her city would remain an “open city” for all immigrants. The governor of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, used almost the same language. Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a conservative, was the only one who dared to call jihadist terrorism by its name. Almost all European journalists said Rajoy’s words were too harsh.
Mainstream European newspapers describing the horror once again sought explanations to what they kept calling “inexplicable”. The leading Spanish daily newspaper, El Pais, wrote in an editorial that “radicalization” is the bitter fruit of the “exclusion” of certain “communities,” and added that the answer was more “social justice”. In France, Le Monde suggested that terrorists want to “incite hatred”, and stressed that Europeans must avoid “prejudice”. In the UK, The Telegraph explained that “killers attack the West because the West is the West; not because of what it does” — but it spoke of “killers”, not “terrorists” or “Islamists”.
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