Erasing Jihad Globally

After everything has been said about the killings in Paris in November 2015 and the two blasts in Brussels of March 22 that took a toll of 31 lives and left 271 others injured, one finds that the target seems to be only terrorism and terrorists rather than jihad and jihadists. The problem about tackling religion-based terrorism in Europe is at least two-fold. In the first place, there is the need to preserve and uphold the liberal civil rights culture of all progressive democracies. Along with this, there is also the imperative of having to provide protection to citizens from the mindless attacks of those who have sought and secured a good life in Europe but have remained steadfast to their resolve to turn entire Europe into an unsafe violence-ridden continent. The only explation that one can provide for such an attitude to countries that have been willing hosts to all kinds of immigrants is that the terrorists are determined to ensure safe passage at all times and all over Europe to activists of the Islamic State (IS). The only objective that fuels such mindless terrorism against innocent citizens is the outdated objective of jihad based on intolerance of all other faiths. This cannot be allowed to survive in the 21st century. The Islamic State that has its headquarters in Syria must henceforth be seen as the fountainhead of jihad, and the entire world must embark on a crusade to erase jihad from the face of the earth in the next 10 years. It is unfortute, that hundreds of activists of the IS should have maged to move to Syria from Brussels which is not only the capital of the European Union but also the headquarters of TO.

There are allegations now that Belgium is not only being too lenient with terrorists but that it has committed serious security blunders that have ebled jihadi terrorists to escape to other European countries. One of the suicide bombers of Brussels was identified as a terrorist and deported from Turkey to Europe last year. Even so, Belgium failed to arrest him. In fact, Turkish intelligence officials had warned their Belgian counterparts last summer that Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, aged 29, posed a threat. On Tuesday, he was the one to detote a il bomb at the Brussels airport killing 14 people. His brother, Khalid, two years younger, exploded the second bomb on the city’s Metro that took the death toll to at least 31. President Erdogan of Turkey has demanded an explation as to why Ibrahim el-Bakraoui was allowed to go free after being detained in Gaziantep near Syria. “Despite our warnings that this person was a foreign terrorist fighter, the Belgian authorities could not identify a link to terrorism,” he said. He was deported to the Netherlands in June 2015, but Belgium was warned of his terrorist links at a time when it was suspected that Islamic State (IS) fighters were entering Europe to attack capital cities. President Erdogen of Turkey has said that Belgian consular authorities were formally notified of Ibrahim’s deportation on July 14. According to reports, the Belgian authorities even failed to track down Ibrahim, also a convicted armed robber, when he breached prison release conditions. An arrest warrant issued for him was never pursued. It is such casual attitudes to jihadi terrorism on misguided notions of having to uphold civil rights at all costs that is likely to get European countries in great jeopardy in the coming months. Opinion polls suggest that there is strong support in Britain for leaving the European Union in a referendum that is set for June 23. It is only after tragic events like the killings in Paris and Brussels that governments in Europe are waking up to the need for far more stringent action against jihadi terrorists. It is high time that there was more concerted and sustained military action both by European countries and the United States against the IS to wipe out jihad and jihadists, regardless of the ratiolizations offered on behalf of jihad. People must also be made aware of the perverse notion of martyrdom that the concept of jihad carries with it, considering that one finds suicide bombers only among jihadi terrorists.

Top Headlines

No stories found.
Sentinel Assam
www.sentinelassam.com