Small Mercies 

 

Forensic officers work at the Parsons Green Underground Station after an explosion in London Sept. 15, 2017. AP

"In terms of scale this is bigger than the devices used in 7/7, so had it gone off successfully, it would have caused huge loss of life."
"Whoever built this [improvised explosive device] was not an amateur -- it has many of the hallmarks of devices used by terror groups, but the use of the timer to set off the initial part of the device is something we have not seen before in the U.K."
David Videcette, former police counter-terrorism officer

"I ended up squashed on the staircase. People were falling over, people fainting, crying."
"There were little kids clinging onto the back of me."
Ryan Barnett, London commuter

"I heard a large bang from the doors on the other side of the Tube train and this fireball came towards my head and singed off all my hair."
"It was a really hot, intense fireball above my head. I've just got red marks and burns to the top of my head. There were a lot of people a lot worse than me."
Peter Crowley, London commuter

"It was hot and just came towards you, this flaming orange coming towards you. It smelt like burning."
"We ran and hid behind cement boxes on the tracks and were the last people to get off the platform."
"My first thought was: 'This is a terrorist attack, I'm going to die'."
Lauren Hubbard, London commuter

The improvised explosive device in a white bucket blew up on the final carriage of the Parsons Green train Credit: Pricey1983aa/Twitter

It was a terrorist attack, and she didn't die. Nor did any of the 20-some-odd people who sustained injuries as a result of the premature explosion that failed to go off as intended. It was obviously intended to cause greater carnage than the July 2005 attacks killing 56 people and injuring close to 800 others in the London transit system, both on the trains and on buses. The IED, however, appeared to the experts who examined it, to resemble the devices that were used back then.

The device was photographed by passengers who made their photos available to the news media. A string of LED lights used for Christmas decoration ironically enough was used by the designer of the IED; and just such a set of lights was also found in the bomb-making possession of a young Montreal couple now on trial for possession of vastly incriminating evidence that they were working for Islamic State.

In theory the bomber might have considered setting the lights to flash on a delay to allow himself the opportunity to escape prior to detonation. However the detonator, usually constructed of volatile or inflammable materials appears to have spontaneously burst into flames; since a massive detonation was thus avoided, the device, packed with shrapnel, did not explode as planned, saving the lives of countless people, a handful of whom sustained surface burn wounds.

The bomb had been packed with metal nuts, bolts and nails for maximum devastation on explosion and seemed similar to one used by Salman Abedi in his attack on the Manchester Arena where 22 people were killed, earlier this year. In the aftermath of yesterday morning's rush-hour attack the Joint Terrorism Assessment Centre recommended that the terror threat in London be raised to its highest level of Critical.

A massive search by police succeeded in arresting an 18-year-old man as the perpetrator, although as news coverage continues and investigative reporters begin to release details more, much more will be revealed including whether this man was capable of constructing the bomb. In fact, a bomb-making facility has been discovered and when those associated with it are identified the scale and scope of the problem facing London may surprise many who deliberately turn their faces away from reality.

"We have made a significant arrest in our investigation this morning. Although we are pleased with the progress made, this investigation continues and the threat level remains at critical."
"The public should remain vigilant. This arrest will lead to more activity from our officers."
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, Metropolitan Police, London

The Moral Conundrum of 9/11

"Victim family members approach being down here in this dark place from all sorts of perspectives. They've all suffered and there's a full range of human reaction from, 'I'm so happy you're doing what you're doing, it's good for America', to famously, 'Go f--k yourself'."
"This case [trial of five defendants charged with accessories in the murder of 2,967 people] will have a huge impact on whether we [America] keep chipping away at democracy."
"Is this going to become normal, especially with this administration? Or is it going to remain this one weird footnote to history? Frankly, I hope it remains one weird footnote." 
"There are [sic] a lot of unpopular people -- me as a defence lawyer, you in the media -- who in history were hauled before military tribunals for pushing back against whatever policy of the government was. The idea of substituting military tribunals for civilian justice, to me is the single most important precedent this case will set."
"I have often wondered why from such a young age I was interested in the ideal of liberty. I don't come from a family of activists or anything like that. But perhaps that experience of maintaining disconnect between people and politics led me [to] focus on the individual and their rights."
"You could be interested about the people who were the enemies of the United States at the time, without hating the people themselves."
James Connell III, death-row defence lawyer

Sunrise over Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.   (MICHELLE SHEPHARD)

As a high-minded principle of this man who has dedicated himself, along with a  handful of other lawyers, to defending the civil 'human rights' of barbarians whose religious ideology caused them to declare war on defenceless civilians as symbols of a nation and a political system, a society and a religion that they detest and in the process conspiring to commit a horrendous mass  slaughter, it's difficult for the less-inclined-to-be-fastidious about human rights and legality in such an unspeakable instance to be fixated on a focus on justice.

In the case of co-conspirators of the 9-11 attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, justice, as wan as it can be under the circumstances, would reflect the need to expunge such monsters from existence. They are human beings, yes certainly, but human beings who chose to ferociously commit to murder on a mass scale and in the process to terrorize those who failed to subscribe to their murderous theological commitment to death. If justice in the opinion of this American lawyer, is to be dealt with equanimity and equality on the basis of shared humanity, it is an opinion that extenuating circumstances such as these cause to ring hollow.

James Connell III prides himself on his reading of justice and the law. But he has chosen the career of death-penalty lawyer, to represent those accused of and found guilty of heinous crimes for which the penalty in some American states is administrative, institutional death as punishment for those crimes. His is a mission to uphold justice and the due course of the law. The prisoners whom the United States government finds responsible for involvement in the success of the 9-11 horrors are held at a place called Camp Justice which was built over a former airstrip.

This is an odiously unspeakable crime they are accused of. It happened fifteen years ago. The defence in each of the instances representing the five accused, is building the case for their defence, slowly and meticulously to ensure that justice is seen to be done. And although fifteen years have passed, those who are familiar with the proceedings anticipate that another fifteen years will pass before the cases will go to trial and be finalized.

Mr. Connell is representing Ammar al-Baluchi, born in Kuwait of Pakistani parents, the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man held to be the mastermind behind the attacks, while Mr. al-Baluchi is accused of being their financier. Once monthly the lawyer and his client meet for seven hours during the course of a day. Mr. al-Baluchi's arraignment in 2012 lasted 13 hours. The level of involvement for all five accused is held to be different, but Mr. Connell is of the firm opinion that his client knew nothing of the 9-11 attacks and he is prepared to fight to defend his client's life.

The venue of the prison where they are held, Camp Justice, sits on a runway long since abandoned where jet fuel was dumped. Around it are buildings containing asbestos. "This isn't a Guantanamo or not Guantanamo issue. This is an abandoned runway that contains toxins that are known to cause serious disease and death", asserts another of the inmates' lawyers, Michael Schwartz. He is defending Walid bin Attash whom the Pentagon claims operated an al-Qaeda training camp in Logar, Afghanistan, where two of the 19 hijackers had been trained.

On a previous occasion Lawyer Connell represented John Allen Muhammad of the Beltway sniper attacks that killed ten people in Maryland, Virginia and Washington in 2002. Mr. Connell speaks of meeting with family members of the 9-11 victims. "I want you to be completely honest with me; is there anything human or redeeming about these people" he says he is asked. "I tell them, 'Yes, they are very human with a full range of their own reactions'." Like defiance, anger, fear, hatred and the will to kill, doubtless.

A kind of legend of fear has grown around the place called Camp Justice. It is recognized as an environmentally hazardous site, and people claim it is having a dreadfully deleterious effect on their health. So far, at least seven people who have worked there and who have been exposed to what lies underground and is presumably dangerous, have been stricken with cancer. The former lawyer for Canadian Omar Khadr died in 2015 from cancer, at age 44.

Canada To The Rescue -- Or Not

"I always admired John [Ridsdel, abducted, beheaded] ; he was a free spirit and he found a rich, full life in the bigger world outside Canada. He was also well aware of the risks he faced in making life choices and lived a well considered life knowing those risks."
"I also know John would be appalled that his passing and the manner in which it happened would be used to close doors to international understanding, our relation to the Muslim community or our ideas about immigration. He embraced culture diversity and international understanding and had immense pride in the roles his daughters were playing in their chosen fields."
Bob Foulkes, Vancouver consultant

"He [Canadian Robert Hall, abducted by Abu Sayyaf along with John Ridsdel, for ransom] talked about the people being amazing and it being such a beautiful place. He just raved about it."
"I asked him, 'Will you come back to Canada?' And he said, 'I don't think so. I love it'. And then this happened and you go, oh my goodness. All your hopes and dreams."
Yvonne Coccio, British Columbia

"I appeal to my family, the Philippine government, and the Canadian government. My specific appeal is to the Canadian government who I know has the capacity to get us out of here. I wonder what they are waiting for."
Robert Hall, 50, Canadian adventurer

A still image captured from video footage of the kidnappers and their victims is shown in this SITE Intelligence Group video made available to Reuters. File photo

"Canada does not and will not pay ransom to terrorists, directly or indirectly."
"Obviously, this is a significant source of funds for terrorist organizations that then allow them to continue to perpetrate deadly acts of violence against innocents around the world."
"But more importantly, paying ransom for Canadians would endanger the lives of every single one of the millions of Canadians who live, work and travel around the globe every single year."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

And there are plenty of them, those Canadians "who live, work and travel around the globe". Almost 59 million trips were made by Canadians in 2013 to foreign parts. And almost 2.8 million Canadians live overseas. They can be found in remote and dangerous locations; some, like John Ridsdel in exploration for undiscovered mineral reserves. And then there are aid workers and missionaries feeling morally driven to offer their help to people in developing countries.

Canadians, in the past several years, have been abducted by criminal and terrorist groups across Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Experts feel that these abductions are a rising phenomenon as terrorist groups realize they can be useful in raising funds for their operational expenses. Canadians, however, cannot reasonably expect their government to be able always unfailingly to rescue them when they find themselves in these dire situations.

And while there is a limit to what governments can do, and many governments prefer to do nothing officially in shared reflection of the declaration of Mr. Trudeau's statement, the avenue of negotiating with terrorists remains open conducted by private groups, skilled professional negotiators representing families of the abducted. Which is how Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay were released by a West African terrorist group, though it is generally held that government money paid for their release.

That didn't stop former diplomat now retired Robert Fowler from excoriating the government for being laggardly in their release, despite other countries' and their diplomats' interventions in concert with the government of Canada. Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper came in for some contemptful and contemptible criticism from Mr. Fowler who felt his choice to place himself in potential danger warranted an all-stops rescue effort from his country.

Had Stephen Harper ever publicly expressed the bald views now aired by his successor, he would have been publicly pilloried as a heartless politician with an overt agenda, pleased to leave unfortunate victims of circumstances to their own devices, and if that included beheading, then so be it. Trudeau, on the other hand, is able to say whatever he wishes, and no one seems to care to consider he could have said less.

In Mr. Hall's case, it seems that the southern Philippines held an especial attraction for this man because of its lawlessness. Courting danger has its moments, no doubt, but once an abduction takes place and a defenceless person is surrounded by dangerous, surly, armed jihadis, the idea of placing oneself in such a personally compromised position may lose much of its lustre. Certainly, Mr. Hall, in his videoed statement seemed to feel, like Mr. Fowler, that Canada has let him down.

"He's an adventurer. He's just always looking for the next thing", stated his stepmother. He planned to ship out from the Philippines and go on to Thailand before his abduction on September 21, 2015 along with Mr. Ridsdel, a Filipino friend and the Norwegian manager of the isolated marina they all had their boats moored at, while they enjoyed the beautifully lush natural surroundings.

The shock of 68 year-old Canadian John Ridsdel's beheading by a Philippines' terrorist cell is still reverberating, with many Canadians who have a penchant for visiting exotic places of the world where threats to their existence in the form of jihadist groups like Abu Sayyaf are becoming an increasing potential no doubt giving second thought to their plans.

Travelling to world hot spots because they are exciting and romantic has its attractions; somewhat modified by the knowledge that danger also lurks.

"God Is Great!"

"We have received information that a headless body was found at 8:30 p.m. of a Caucasian man in Jolo City, Jolo Island."
"It appears to have been decapitated." 
"A motorcycle driver threw a plastic bag in the road in front of where there were five children playing at 7:30 p.m. But there was a brown-out [power failure]. When the lights went back on it was seen that there was blood on the plastic bag and police were called."
"I am angry. We are supposed to be neutral but this has been happening with impunity. The government has to do something to stop this. It has been going on for too long."
"Abu Sayhyaf had tried to ask me several months ago to negotiate. I refused to do so, but I did speak with all the hostages to confirm that they were still alive."
Dick Gordon, chairman, Philippine Red Cross

SITE Intelligence Group / REUTERS

Filipino jihadis point rifles at kidnap hostages in a video released on Tuesday. The kidnap victims, including two Canadians, appealed to the Philippine government to stop its artillery assaults.

The Philippines has been plagued with the presence of an Islamist group claiming allegiance to Islamic State. They named themselves Abu Sayyaf -- "Bearers of the Sword". Coincidentally enough Islamic State's oil minister up to the point where he was killed by U.S. Special Forces in 2015 was also named Abu Sayyaf. The sword being one of the symbols of Islam, alongside a crescent moon; the sword signifying Islam's conquest of non-believers.

The non-believers that Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines targets for abduction are those foreigners whom they feel will bring them ransom wealth from the countries whose nationals they are. Back in September this Islamist group attacked the Holiday Ocean View Marina on the resort island of Samal, considered a very safe area of the Philippines. Four captives were taken, two Canadian men, a Filipino woman and the manager of the resort, a Norwegian.

A few weeks ago, a video surfaced of the kidnappers along with the two Canadians pleading to be ransomed and set free from the clutches of the terrorists. And there was a message from the captors of the four people who demanded $8-million for their release: "Still, you procrastinate. So now this is already an ultimatum. Once you don't meet the demand, we will certainly behead one amongst this four."

The one amongst the four happened to be 68-year-old former oil executive and journalist John Ridsdel. Although Canada, like most other countries has an official policy not to negotiate with terrorists, and the government of the Philippines urged the Canadian government not to relent and provide the Islamists with a financial reward for their abductions, there were emergency efforts underway to free the captives.

It seems the sticking point was the lavish demand of $8-million, and negotiators were attempting to reduce the demands, while the Abu Sayyaf gang refused. And so the deadline passed. And so Mr. Ridsdel was beheaded, in the traditional manner as mandated by the Koran for enemies of Islam under jihadist rules; any who have not submitted to Islam are considered enemies occupying the 'House of War', which the 'House of Peace', which is Islam, must respond to.

Yet another Islamist jihadist group has 'responded'.

The Equation: Ransom or Beheading

"We're told that this is the absolute final warning, so this is a final urgent appeal to governments, Philippine, Canadian, and families. If 300 million is not paid for me by 3 p.m. on April 25th, they will behead me."
"Please do what’s needed to meet their demands within one month or they will kill me, they will execute us."
John Ridsdel, 68, former Canadian mining executive

"I appeal to my family, the Philippine government, and the Canadian government. My specific appeal is to the Canadian government who I know has the capacity to get us out of here."
"I wonder what they are waiting for."
"The Canadian government has got to get off its ass and do what is necessary to get us out of here soon. We’ve got one month before this happens." 
Canadian hostage, 50, Robert Hall

Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall are among 4 people who were abducted from the Holiday Ocean View Samal Resort in the Philippines

"[The] deadline of warning is over. Still, you procrastinate. So now this is already an ultimatum."
"Once you don't meet the demand, we will certainly behead one amongst this four [hostages]."
"If you think that your policy is far better for you than the lives of [these] captives, certainly we will do something terrible against [these] captives. "Allahu Akbar! (God is great)."
spokesman-captor, al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf terrorist group

There are certainly precedents for Canada in dealing with such situations. Former Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler was working as a special envoy to the United Nations when he was taken hostage in 2008 along with Canadian diplomat Louis Guay by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and held for 130 days in the Sahara Desert, before they were both finally released when the demanded ransom was paid, although the Government of Canada repeatedly denied paying any ransom. 

It is government policy in some countries not to pay ransom and in so doing supporting the financial structure of fanatical terrorist groups.

The Abu Sayyaf Islamist group is now demanding 300 million pesos by April 25, down from the original one billion they had demanded a month earlier. This last of a series of videos showing four captives, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, Robert Hall, his Filipina friend Marites Flor, and John Ridsdel, has more of an air of urgent hopelessness about it than previous ones. 

The threat of imminent death hangs over one of the four, taken hostage on September 11 when the Holiday Ocean View Samal Resort off Mindanao was stormed by the terrorists. The scenario is a typical one where people seem to place themselves into situations vulnerable to disaster, then turn to their governments to exert influence or money or whatever it takes to extricate them from these savagely miserable situations.

This is a group that specializes in the taking of foreign hostages. Abu Sayyaf has been listed as a terrorist group since 2003 by Public Safety Canada which points out that terrorism as practised by the group is engaged in for the primary goal of profit through kidnap-for-ransom. Without doubt, some contacts are working behind the scenes on behalf of the Canadian government to sponsor the release of the two Canadians, as no doubt Norway is as well. Marites Flor's release will be thrown in for good measure.

"Each video I've seen, [the hostages] are weaker and weaker", observed Zachary Abuza, a southeast Asian security expert at the National War College in Washington. It is a template all such groups are faithful to, because it works. Abu Sayyaf may style itself a terrorist group, taking its inspiration from al-Qaeda and Islamic State, but it is evidently a gathering of thugs throughout the jungles of the Sulu Archipelago.

Allahu Akbar : Al-Qaeda Proposes and Disposes

"I saw that there was a chaos situation there. Some people had arrived in a diplomatic car. When they arrived, the security that was at the hotel fled away and those people got the time to get in the hotel with their weapons."
Salim, Bamako, Mali

"We were evacuated -- there were many people inside the hotel at that stage. I saw corpses in the lobby."
"I hid in my room and there was knocking at my door saying the security forces had arrived and it was over."
Hotel guest, Radisson Blu hotel, Bamako

"We, in the group of the Mourabitoun, in cooperation with our brothers in Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, the great desert area, claim responsibility for the hostage-taking operation in the Radisson hotel in Bamako."

"[A...cease-fire and release of the hostages] predicated on the release of all the imprisoned mujahedeen in the prisons of Mali and the cessation of the aggression against our people in the north and center of Mali [can be arranged]."

Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, chief of Al Mourabitoun

Security officials pose in front of the Radisson hotel in Bamako holding a jihadist flag they say belonged to attackers. (Joe Penney/Reuters)

They're jostling anxiously to take credit for this newest massacre, the group calling itself Al Mourabitoun, an al-Qaeda breakaway (which came to wide public notice when it mounted a large terrorist attack on the In Amenas oilfields in Algeria in 2013 which left 40 hostages and 29 attackers dead), and another jihadi group, the Saharan Emirate of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb led by Yahya Abu Hammam, whose favourite enterprise is the kidnapping of Westerners for profit.

When Islamist terrorists took advantage of Libya's disintegration after its civil war and the resulting availability of the country's weapons arsenals, Mali became a target, and France, its former colonial master, rode to the rescue to try to rescue the ousted democratically elected government. They succeeded to a degree but the jihadis remain in Timbuktu, and the AQIM operates with virtual impunity from that ancient city.

The collaboration between the two groups to effect the attack on the Radisson Blu hotel, considered to be the most heavily guarded in Mali and where foreign visitors, diplomats and newspeople tend to stay, resulted in the killing of about 27 people. The assault which began in the early morning went on for hours, sending the 170 guests in the hotel at the time into a panic of fear. French commandos aided local security forces to eventually clear the hotel of guests, floor by floor, and it took a full dozen hours to do so.

France retains 1,450 troops in Mali; the largest group of Western expatriates in Bamako are French citizens. Driving a vehicle with diplomatic license plates, the attackers exited the car and three gunmen fired weapons killing two hotel security guards, influencing the remainder to flee for their lives and leaving the hotel guests and personnel to fend for themselves. Security forces surrounded the hotel in short order.

"In response to a request by the Malian authorities, the defence minister has decided to send a unit of special forces" stated a French government official of the special forces unit arriving from a base in neighbouring Burkina Faso. Paramilitary officers from Mali's gendarmerie and local security forces prepared to enter the hotel, while inside, the gunmen, moving from floor to floor challenged hotel guests to recite the invocation of Muslim faith. 

Those who failed the test were shot. The lobby, hallways, or rooms of the hotel held the dead. 

Malian forces and the French decided they would enter the hotel under siege and by noon they were inside, themselves going "floor by floor", to clear the hotel of its guests. As the security forces were busy escorting guests out of the hotel the attackers continued their prowling of the upper floors. There were foreign guests from China, France, the United States and Russia. 

Four Belgians were also registered at the hotel, and Geoffrey Dieudonne, a government official, there to help train Mali's civil service, was among the dead.

According to a Guinean guest, the attackers were heard to speak English, with Nigerian accents. "I heard them say in English, 'Did you load it?', 'Let's go'", said Sekouba Diabate. 

Fighters from Boko Haram, the terrorist group spreading chaos and slaughter in Nigeria are known for having gone to Mali to join al-Qaeda. The jihadis find great appeal in gravitating toward the groups known to have realized the greatest success. The challenge among the premier groups in Islamist jihad is for each to demonstrate that they represent the more successful threat to the West.

Al-Qaeda is differentiating itself from Islamic State. It boasts that it slaughters only non-Muslims, while ISIL takes no such care. When the assaults took place on the Kenyan university and the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya, as well as the Algerian gas plant by affiliates, an element of care was taken to differentiate Muslims from non-Muslims, and to spare the lives of Muslims, in contrast to ISIL's proclivity to murder whomever it pleases.

This tactic elicits praise and admiration from its online supporters. One response to the querying of Muslims and the demand they recite Quranic verses and sparing their lives was a praise of the "lions" who engage in this separating out of the faithful "to protect the inviolable blood of Muslims". Another supporter stated: "This is how Muslims SHOULD act"; the Islamic State "should learn a thing or two and drop their crooked creed and methodology", leaving the slaughter for non-Muslims alone.

Dreadfully encouraging. This is Islamic honour at its finest.

Iran Deal: Barbarity Wins by Guy Millière September 5, 2015 at 5:00 am http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6451/iran-deal-barbarity-wins When Israeli Jews are murdered, often barbarically, nearly all European and American media blame Israel and find excuses for the killers. Forgotten is that the "Palestinian people" and the "Palestinian cause" are a mythic narrative invented by the KGB and Nasser's secret service propaganda machine in the 1960s. Hamas has an even more genocidal goal: the destruction of Israel and all Jews. For many journalists, that is also a detail not worth mentioning. The Iranian regime claims non-stop that its main objective is the elimination of Israel and Israeli Jews. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has just published a book, Palestine, detailing his plans to destroy Israel. For most commentators, the book is of no relevance. It does not matter. Leaders of Western countries adopt the same view. What is at stake in enriching Iran and arming it with nuclear capability is more than the fate of Israel and Israeli Jews: it is also the fate of America -- even if it does not wish to realize that goal yet --as well as values of Western civilization. As migrants continue to pour over the borders of Italy and Hungary, and from there to spread out into the rest of Europe, the continent is becoming increasingly and irreversibly Muslim. Europe is lost to Islam. In recent weeks, the Middle East section of most European and American newspapers and magazines included many articles on Muhammad Allan, a hunger striker imprisoned in Israel. Apparently that Muhammad Allan is in jail because he belongs to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad seemed irrelevant. That the Israeli intelligence services know he was preparing terrorist attacks also did not seem to matter . That the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel additionally did not seem to matter. Muhammad Allan was described as a victim. If he had died on a hunger strike, Israel would be blamed. As he did not die, but suffered brain damage due to self-inflicted starvation, Israel was blamed anyway. When a member of a Palestinian jihadist organization that has killed Jews and that wants to kill more Jews puts his life in danger, most mainstream media in Europe and in America depict him as a "resister." Negative comments are usually directed against Israel. When a Palestinian Arab terrorist is killed by an Israeli soldier, most members of the mainstream media in Europe and America blame the Israeli army, even if the person killed was known to have murdered or injured Israeli Jews. A few weeks ago, when a Palestinian Arab house was set on fire and a baby died in the flames, the perpetrators were assumed to be Israeli Jews. Even though the Israeli government immediately denounced the crime, almost all the reports published in European and American media accused Israel. When Israeli Jews are murdered, often barbarically, nearly all European and American media blame Israel and find excuses for the killers. If the murdered Jews lived in the West Bank, they are automatically featured as people occupying someone else's land, and to blame for what happened to them. Such accusations even fall on murdered young children, including babies. Immediately after the massacre of the Fogel family in Itamar in 2011, many newspapers reported that "five settlers" were killed. Some "pro-Palestinian" websites in Europe went even farther; one reported, "Five terrorist Zionists eliminated." If the murdered Jews lived outside the West Bank, it was harder to belittle them directly, but it did not stop those who said that the murdered had good reasons to kill. Some journalists cite "Palestinian" organizations' press releases claiming the bloodshed was in response to "crimes" committed by the Israeli army. Others, suggesting that the killers were guided by "despair," included the criminals among the victims. After the November 2014 massacre at a synagogue in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof, the French daily, Le Monde, published an article entitled, "Six Killed in Jerusalem." In the article, the murderers shot dead by police were included in the victims' body-count. CBC News in Canada did worse. The headline of the report on the attack read, "Jerusalem police fatally shoot 2 after apparent synagogue attack." Despite the massive atrocities committed by the Islamic State in Iraq and in Syria, despite the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime in Syria, despite the existence of atrocious dictatorships, this disproportionate pile-on against Israel has a name: the hatred and demonization by racists of an entire country and an entire people. Demonization works because it uses all sorts of political stereotypes. All the false and collective allegations used to demonize Jews in Europe for centuries are used again. Israel is described as an "imperialist," "colonialist" and "militarist" power, and Israeli Jews are portrayed as ruthless agents of this power. The "Palestinian" killers of Israeli Jews, including civilians and babies, are presented as "freedom fighters" and heroic members of an "oppressed people." Forgotten is that the "Palestinian people" and the "Palestinian cause" are a mythic narrative invented by the KGB and Nasser's secret service propaganda machine in the 1960s. Jews in Europe have long been accused of every conceivable evil; now Israel and Israeli Jews are accused of blood libels, the gratuitous murder of innocents. Killers of Jews in Europe were often glorified and described as killers of people who were strangers to the land they lived in. Crimes committed by Jews were used to incriminate all Jews. When Jews were slaughtered, they were often designated as deserving the blame for their fate. Historians of anti-Semitism explain that in Europe, frequently the hatred of Jews was so common that it made the unacceptable acceptable. The historian Leon Poliakov noted that, "Without the incessant incitement to hatred of Jews throughout Europe, without the trivialization of the hatred, the attempted extermination of an entire people would not have been possible."[1] The late scholar Robert Wistrich said that demonization of Israel and Israeli Jews leads to the same kind of hatred. He added that a trivialization of hatred is accepted all the more if it is based on an old hatred: "What did happen could happen again."[2] Ideas of extermination proliferate in the Middle East; most people do not pay attention. Palestinian Islamic Jihad is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and Israeli Jews. For many journalists, that is a detail not worth mentioning. Hamas has an even more genocidal goal, the destruction of Israel and all Jews. "The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones , and each tree an stone will say, 'O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." For many journalists; that is also a detail not worth mentioning. Official Palestinian Authority television constantly calls for the destruction of Israel. It also glorifies killers of Jews as role models; most commentators just look the other way. The Iranian regime claims non-stop that its main objective is the elimination of Israel and Israeli Jews. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has just published a book, Palestine, detailing his plans to destroy Israel. For most commentators, the book is apparently of no relevance; it does not matter. Leaders of Western countries have the same view. They fund the Palestinian Authority (PA), and therefore finance official PA Television. They know that much of the money given is used to pay and train killers of Jews, but evidently they do not care. They just signed an agreement with the Iranian regime that will allow Iran soon to have nuclear weapons and to receive billions of dollars to finance and arm terrorist groups dedicated to the full destruction of Israel, and Israeli Christians, Muslims and Jews. But evidently leaders of Western countries do not care about that, either. They are, in effect, acquiescing to genocide; but so long as business can be done with Iran, apparently that is fine with them. If genocide occurred, they would be ready to cheer from the sidelines. Some journalists and columnists see what is happening and are sounding an alarm. But they are a minority, especially in Europe, where courage seems to have vanished along with a number of Jews. Some political leaders still have ethical values and ​​shout their indignation. None of them is European. Nearly all of them are American. They understand that silence means consent and that at certain moments in history, it is imperative to take a stand. What is at stake in enriching Iran and arming it with nuclear capability is more than the fate of Israel and Israeli Jews: it is also the fate of America, even if it does not wish to realize that yet. It is also the fate of Western civilization. As migrants continue to pour over the borders of Hungary, Italy and Greece, and from there to spread out into the rest of Europe, the continent is becoming increasingly and irreversibly Muslim. Europe is lost to Islam. Seven decades after Auschwitz, barbarity is fast gaining ground again. In September, the U.S. Congress may vote -- or try to weasel out of a vote -- to approve or disapprove of the agreement with Iran. Either way, U.S. President Barack Obama has vowed to push the deal through. His decision will have consequences far beyond what we see now. One thing is certain: they will not be good. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei (center), is shown meeting in May 2014 with Iran's military chief of staff and the commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. (Image source: IRNA) [1] Leon Poliakov, Harvest of Hate: The Nazi Program for the Destruction of the Jews of Europe, Schocken Books, 1979. [2] Robert Wistrich, From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews, and Israel, University of Nebraska Press, 2012.

What Good Intentions Have Wrought

"There is the increasing possibility that the situation in Libya will transform into a long-term tribal civil war."
"This is particularly probable if opposition forces received military assistance from foreign militaries."
Canadian intelligence specialists, March 15, 2011 assessment

"One can quarrel with it or not quarrel with it, but the mission was we would provide air cover for those that were initially subject to Gadhafi's attacks and ultimately became his overthrowers."
"The decision was made at the outset that we were not going to go into Libya (on the ground) per se. It was going to be up to the Libyans to then make t he best of the situation."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper

An armed man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi late on Sept. 11, 2012. US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three of his colleagues were killed in an attack on the consulate in the eastern Libyan city by Islamists outraged over an amateur American-made Internet video mocking Islam. Stevens died less than six months after being appointed to his post. STR/AFP/Getty Images

Hindsight, a formal intellectually introspective exercise, rarely arrives with solutions to problems, only regrets that what occurs in response to a chosen direction turns out disastrous. And then in realizing that, one must defend the original position since it is too painful to admit that the response was one taken in haste, with insufficient thought to the probable outcome. In the case of Libya, just as in any country in that region of the world abutting the Middle East, tribal, clan, sectarian and ethnic complexities sully outcomes.

While it might mean that a reasonable mind in thinking of the future might conclude that given a little help from powerful outside sources, the indigenous population, freed at long last from the imperious and cruel dictates of a tyrant might take the opportunity to act in concert for the greater good of the country in which they live, that reasonable but hugely uninsightful interpretation of the currents of hatred, resentment and violence made its decision in error.

Which is to say the executive branch of government in this instance, in throwing in its expected lot with that of its collegial members of NATO in the belief that it was the right thing to do, did so when the country's military intelligence officers parsed the situation and its outcome quite differently. Predicting in 2011 that Libya could and likely would descend into the ongoing destructive chaos of civil war, led by opposing tribal challenges to a central authority.

The warning was made, and it was most likely shunted aside as Canada threw in her lot with the bombing campaign under NATO auspices and UN approval to aid local militias in their resolve to remove Moammar Gadhafi's regime from power, permitting in the final analysis, Libya to descend into lawless and violent chaos where rival tribes and militias continue to meet in battle for control of the country.

"The one thing we can say categorically is that they couldn't be any worse than Col. Gadhafi", said the then-Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs in pointing out that the issue was to help Libya reach its way into becoming a democracy. The weak and ignored central authority that ostensibly represents democratic rule has been ineffective and powerless against the larger factions that challenge and dismiss it.

Gadhafi was indeed a brutal dictator, just as Iraq's Saddam Hussein was, but both kept opposing factions under control through fear and oppression, and the only violence that took place was what each government wrought upon their weaker, less-well-organized opponents. In their absence, each of the countries descended into violence. Perhaps worse, each of those countries has become a smouldering hotbed of Islamist fanaticism whose vicious depredations and threats surmount those of the tyrants.

And nor was the West totally ignorant of what they might be unleashing, since intelligence reports described the anti-Gadhafi stronghold of eastern Libya as an "epicentre of Islamist extremism" whose "extremist cells" operated in the region. And now, the iron fist that kept them in check is gone, and they are free to destroy and kill at leisure. Hell unleashed.

Al-Hayat Media Centre/AFP/Getty Images   An image grab taken from a video released on Feb. 15, 2015 purportedly shows black-clad ISIS fighters leading handcuffed hostages, said to be Egyptian Coptic Christians, wearing orange jumpsuits before their alleged decapitation on a seashore in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

Prescription For Peace - Don't Blame Islam

"[President Bashar Asad's] war against his own people and deliberate stoking of sectarian tensions helped to fuel the rise of (Islamic State). And in Iraq, with the failure of the previous government to govern in an inclusive manner, it helped to pave the way for (Islamic State's) gains there."
"[Muslim clerics and scholars] have a responsibility to push back, not just on twisted interpretations of Islam, but also on the lie that we are somehow engaged in a clash of civilizations; that America and the West are somehow at war with Islam or seek to suppress Muslims; or that we are the cause of every ill in the Middle East."
"Obviously, there is a complicated history between the Middle East, the West. And none of us, I think, should be immune from criticism in terms of specific policies, but the notion that the West is at war with Islam is an ugly lie. And all of us, regardless of our faith, have a responsibility to reject it."
"This requires ... wealthier countries to do more. But it also requires countries that are emerging and developing to create structures of governance and transparency so that any assistance provided actually works and reaches people. It's a two way street."
"When people are oppressed, and human rights are denied -- particularly along sectarian lines or ethnic lines -- when dissent is silenced, it feeds violent extremism. It creates an environment that is ripe for terrorists to exploit."
U.S. President Barack Obama

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images    U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism as Syrian cleric Sheikh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi listens on Feb. 19, 2015 in Washington, DC

Another daily lecture from the master explainer. Well, he is correct with one observation, to label as a lie the contention in some Muslim quarters that the West is at war with Islam, when in actual fact it would be more accurate to claim that Islam is at war with the West. It is pure Islamic and fundamental to Islam that as it represents the finished version of monotheism it has an obligation to the Almighty to ensure that all other religions fall and their faithful surrender to the one true faith.

Jihad, so vital to Islam as part of the struggle to see that Islam conquers all opposition to its global conquest for the hearts, minds and lives of humankind in a universal caliphate, is entitled to use all means to convert those who stubbornly resist the call to surrender. It is such a simple matter, after all, to convert to Islam; a quietly final declaration of submission in the declaration that "There is no god but Allah and Mohammad is his messenger".

Poof! another conquest. But the stubborn must be led to their fate; against their will if required. Which is where terror enters the picture, alongside martyrdom and slaughter. The West has no institutions, no single or collective ideology or religion whose ultimate purpose is universal conquest, the leading of the eager as well as the recalcitrant to admission to a cult whose numbers are constantly growing. One of the most potent tools of prosetylization is immigration; infiltration by the masses, then entitlement to recognition of Sharia law.

The clerics to whom Mr. President appeals are often the very sources to ensure that jihad is never far from the minds of the faithful. The purity of purpose of Islamism and its rise to become the threat to the world order that we see today has been gradual, sustained and inexorable. Those Muslim governments that view it as a threat, attempt to sideline the movement, to no avail. Islamist jihad owes nothing to the West but resentment of it, fuelling its determination to surmount and conquer it.

The rise of al-Qaeda and of the Islamic State owes nothing to the West and to claims that they are the result of colonialist interference in the lands in which they have arisen. They arose out of a crucible of rejection of Western values and perceived moral corruption of the West, which, though representative of all that's wrong in the opinion of the Islamists, is ascendant, leading Islamists to the will to destroy democracy, incompatible with complete surrender to Islam.

In alluding to Syria and Iraq, Mr. President points out without meaning to, the starkly malevolent divisions within Islam born of a tribal, ethic sectarian antipathy to ethnic, tribal, clan and religious counterparts with their differences that become hostile, hateful and murderous. There is no counterpart elsewhere in the world today quite as influential and widespread and destructive in loss of lives and numbers of refugees fleeing conflict and oppression as that caused by Islamism.

Typically, Mr. President calls upon the visceral guilt that Westerners feel when speaking of the downtrodden, the misunderstood, the oppressed and the poor in opportunities and welfare, to urge those that have to surrender to the needs of those that have not. And while this is an excellent prescriptive in balanced, civilized societies, it doesn't work quite as well in societies whose values lean heavily on a culture reflective of Medieval society.

Mr. President stresses that the lack of democratic freedoms in countries suffering the burden of violent extremism must be addressed. By whom? It was addressed time and again by his predecessor, determined to bring the blessings of democracy to the Middle East and anywhere that totalitarian governments rule the roost. In toppling unrepentant and controlling dictators in Iraq and Libya, the door was opened to extreme fanatics whose tribal and sectarian hostilities toward others turned massively deadly.

Mr. President has prescribed fixes for his own nation, to attempt to equalize gaps between the wealthy and the poor, to provide social services and and social welfare in a fair and just manner to his own population, and all his prescriptives have realized rejection. Now he reaches further to impress upon the world at large its obligation to itself, when much of the world feels no obligation to itself let alone to others, other than to prevail in their pathologies of isolation, hatred and vengeance.

Canadian Immigration

"We know there are elements who are recruiting, who are brainwashing people. There are people who are recruiting these young Muslim boys. For sure, they are recruiting in our communities: in mosques, in universities, through lectures, through community events."
Imam Syed Soharwardy, Islamic Supreme Council of Canada

Imam Syed Soharwardy, leader of The Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, speaks in Calgary, in a Aug. 31, 2010 photo. Soharwardy says he intends to reach out to other imams to make sure that new converts to Islam are watched closely for signs of radical beliefs. 

 

Canada, a country of immigrants. Founded on the immigrants who came to the top portion of the North American continent to eventually forge a country. A country that began with a challenge between France and Britain to conquer new territory for their own imperialist hegemony, finally melding with two founding nations living in perpetually uneasy communion with one another. A country with the second-largest geography on Earth, and one of the sparsest of populations.

Expanding the population base has always included the primary method of encouraging immigration. Emigration from a country of origin that offers its population too little to one that offers much, and with ease of process combined, enticing hundreds of thousands of new migrants annually to make application as permanent residents of the country. Roughly a quarter of a million people make the effort year after year to come to Canada.

At one time only those of European stock could be assured of acceptance. Visible minorities were rarely to be seen among the population. Although Canada did bring in Asians as virtual slave labourers to do the 19th Century back-breaking work of linking the vast geography from east to west, south to north, from ocean to ocean to ocean, by railway. Non-Caucasians were regarded as inferior, and treated as such, shamefully.

And then Canada grew up and recognized its inexcusably discriminatory attitude toward other ethnic groups, cultures, religions and minority groups, welcoming them all to inflate the ranks of Canadian citizenship. It wasn't always that bringing people in from offshore might result in accepting people of low moral character; in any event, an enlightened society felt that succeeding generations would become more "Canadian", accepting of its values.

By and large that's just what has happened. But there are exceptions to all generalities. And now it seems that disproportionally, Canada has accepted within its population a culture and a heritage that is proving to be vastly disruptive to the Canadian way of life. And Canada is not alone in this situation; across Europe as well as Oceania and North America questions of security and law are emerging.

A soldier, police and paramedics tend to a soldier shot at the National War Memorial near Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday Oct.22, 2014.   Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Muslims entering those countries from all points of the Islamic compass have succeeded in isolating themselves in clusters from the mainstreain indigenous societies they have joined. Joined in the sense that the geography is shared, but not the values, not an acceptance of the prevailing culture, a pride in the existing history, but sharing the social amenities while spurning the social compact. Muslims who deplore the insular hostility of fundamentalist Islam are considered apostates.

Young Muslim men appear to fall into opposing categories; those who attend post-secondary institutions to attain degrees in professions, a small proportion of whom begin to view their faith in a harder light of obligation to Islam requiring surrender to jihad. These are the mujahideen of the Islamic call for a caliphate; they embark on foreign conflicts in a mission to martyr themselves, in the process martyring unwilling Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Then there are their less-ambitious counterparts, those whose social setting is somewhat reduced from the privileged attending universities and colleges. They are those who often find it inconvenient to complete a high school education, who find the allure of gangs, guns, violence, drugs and criminal activity in general far more appealing. In the nation's capital, shootings are becoming commonplace as rival gangs target one another.

Names like Yusuf Ibrahim, (violently latterly deceased), Ahmed Zalal, Mohamed Zalal (deceased as well, violently), Abdulaziaz Abdullah, Hussein Mohammad, Mohamed Najdi, et all, identify origin and religion, all names associated with gang-related violence, turning the city's concerns of crime to a fever-pitch of blighted reality.

And from colleges and universities in Ottawa come other names of concern, those arrested for conspiracies to commit terrorism.

John Maguire aka Abu Anwar al-Canadi

The names are somewhat similar, such as Awso Peshdary, Khader Khalib, John Maguire, Ashton Larmond, Carlos Larmond, Suliman Mohammed and Samr Farhat, for example, many associated with the Muslim Students Association, some of them departed to fight as mujahideen in Syria with Islamic State, others recruiting for ISIS, and others still raising funds for the noble jihadist vision of a universal Caliphate.                   

Make of that what you will.

Europe's Real "Resistance" by Bassam Tawil January 28, 2015 at 5:00 am http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5156/europe-real-resistance Europe's policies of encouraging groups such as Hamas, which constantly espouse violence, demolishes the Palestinian effort to achieve a responsible Palestinian state that finally could end the conflict with Israel. The West has been duped. The French have naïvely taken the bait: they now associate Palestinian "Resistance" with the courageous French underground Résistance that fought the Germans in World War II. They incorrectly assume that the Palestinian "Resistance' must be a good thing, too. But the Palestinian Resistance bears no resemblance to the French Résistance of Word War II. There is no way to compare them. The Palestinian "Resistance" is nothing more than terrorist organizations repressing their own people. They do not resist an evil force; they are an evil force. The truth is that the Europeans do not really care about the Palestinians, only about destroying Israel. Now the International Criminal Court is planning to investigate Israel because it had the gall to defend itself against terrorism, while what did Europe do? Europe, in the face of terrorism, invited every terrorist-sponsoring dictator to join it in a march to protest the very murders that these dictators had paid for. There is no difference between Hamas's aspirations to be "liberated from the Zionist occupation," and radical Islam's aspirations to be liberated from the "Christian occupation" of Europe. All "Resistance" should be against radical Islam as embodied by groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Islamic State, among others. They are the ones we should resist. They should not be allowed to rule us in some Islamist "Palestinian State." Europeans, both civilians and law enforcement personnel, may well be on tenterhooks, wondering what thousands of young Muslim men and women, who left their countries of origin to join the Islamist terrorist organizations in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Africa, will do when they return. Europeans have reason to be concerned: many of the returning jihadists were trained to murder civilians. When they come back to the countries to which their parents fled to escape the political and economic distress of the Arab and Muslim world, many of these mujahideen plan to kill their hosts in the name of extremist Islam. They will call their hosts "infidels," and kill them for the "crime" of not being Muslims. Although Western countries mistakenly turn the spotlight on the Middle East, the real danger is in their own backyards. Thousands of young men are still being brainwashed by imams in mosques throughout Europe. Those who return from Syria and Iraq operate openly -- organizing, and waiting for orders – all in the name of freedom of expression. When these orders come, bombs and rifles will not require trips to the Middle East; they have already been put in place. The imams in the mosques and the Muslim field operatives hide behind democracy's ideology, its freedom of speech and worship, its individual liberty and pluralism – just as Muhammad did during the days of jahiliyya (the period of ignorance before Islam), when he began spreading Islam in a polytheistic Mecca -- which also allowed freedom of speech at that time. Conditions for Islamic activity in Europe are perfect. The West has only good intentions: it desires to integrate its Muslims socially and economically. Yes, most Muslims are not terrorists, but that most terrorists are Muslims is slowly being internalized by a public suffering from naiveté and a serious lack of understanding of radical, violent Islam. The refusal of people in the West to believe that extremist Muslims are serious when they state that their plan is to take over the world and impose sharia on it, may possibly be the result of fear -- either of physical, financial or political harm -- or possibly of political correctness. At best it blurs, and at worst conceals, radical Islam's intentions. Anyone who does reveal these intentions is condemned an "Islamophobe" a "racist" or accused of "hate speech." These accusations are specifically designed to neutralize all opposition before it begins. The Westerners do not understand the Islamists' plan of action. Accusations make them helpless; their helplessness is broadcast to the Islamists. The Islamists then smell blood in the water and ratchet up their demands and murderous activities even more. The most serious problem of the Western intelligence agencies is that most of their agents do not understand Arabic. This shortcoming makes it impossible to follow the nuances of both the imams and the field operatives. Worse yet, the Westerners seem not understand the Arabic mentality. The imams and operatives work ceaselessly and with great sophistication in their communities to accelerate the process of isolation and alienation. They nurture the poverty-stricken Muslims' sense of deprivation and rejection. They whip up a fabric of Islamist success. They talk about the partial victories of the Islamist terror organizations in the Middle East. They glorify the reputation of terrorism, and they instill a fear of radical Islam as a threatening rising power. A Salafist demonstration in Solingen, Germany on May 1, 2012, moments before it degenerated into a violent riot. (Image source: YouTube video screenshot) While radical Islam has been gaining strength and influence, Europe has been increasingly helpless regarding its Christian and Jewish populations, and has been seriously demonizing its Jews. As Islamists increase in both numbers and power, they become more feared, more violent, and more attractive to young, neglected and marginalized Muslim youths, attracted to their power and happily recruited to a new "home." The only active reaction in the West is the rise of various groups that say they will return Islam to what they say is its proper place. The patience of these groups seems to be wearing thin; a violent clash seems possible. It is unfortunate that neither the radical Islamist ideologues nor the leaders of the moderate Muslim world understand either Europe's pluralist spirit or the damage they are doing by increasing this tension. A clash will harm most those Muslims living in Europe who seek nothing more than a normal life. Sadly, the Muslim states that sponsor and incite global terrorism -- Sunni Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as Shi'ite Iran and its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah -- are now paving the way for the destruction of their own Islamic communities in Europe, in the name of a regressive and extremist Islam. To pour oil on the flames of the European protestors, Turkey's President Erdogan is now hinting that Europe and Israel are to blame for the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket massacres in Paris, while the Egyptian Mufti has threatened Europe with hellfire and a bloodbath if cartoons "insulting the prophet" continue to be published. The moderates in the Islamic communities in Europe understand the tragedy waiting in the wings for Muslim-Christian peaceful coexistence, and have made efforts to condemn the extremists responsible for them. But their voices are often too weak to be heard. These brave, non-extremist imams and neighborhood leaders know that terrorist operatives often attack as "infidels" anyone who dares to condemn their actions. They are understandably afraid of what will happen to them if they openly oppose violence and incitement. Meanwhile, as Europe's economy disintegrates, immigrants, most of them Muslims from Turkey and Africa, continue to flood into Europe. As the indoctrination of hatred toward the West continues to escalate, no European country – or even the United States -- has found a way to keep radical, violent Islamist indoctrinations out of its mosques, community centers and hiding places. Europeans so badly want to believe that the legacy of Islam is free from incitement to violence against the West. They hold close the notion that a non-violent Islam exists, which will not turn the Islamic legacy into a model for violence and terrorism. A non-violent, non-extremist Islam does exist, but it is not the one being marketed by charlatan imams and other extremist operatives pretending to be "moderate." The West has been duped. Billions of dollars, including the laundered proceeds of crime, have been sent from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran, to fund incitement and terrorist activities in schools, universities, and radical Islamic charities and institutions in the West. The governments of the West have been victimized and tricked by oil money, Islamic sophistry, voter blocs and political correctness. By sticking its head in the sand and not taking legitimate steps, which indeed may occasionally impinge on some individual rights, to preserve the right to life, the West keeps itself and its population from understanding the real threat posed by extremist Islam. If Europe wants to take the necessary steps to protect itself, it is losing the race. It does not take a prophet to see what is coming, or even a simple observer such as Libya's late leader, Colonel Muammar Gadhafi, who said that Europe would fall to the Muslims without a shot being fired. The truth is, to understand how Europe is deteriorating and careening towards self-destruction, one should look at the limp-wristed policy of appeasement used by the EU in general, and France in particular, when dealing with the conflicts in the Middle East -- the years of dedicated cynicism, corruption, cowardice and the distortion of the truth in the service of narrow, short-term self-interests. Europe's policies harm first the Palestinians because they encourage radical organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and now the Islamic State [IS], which halt progress towards a Palestinian state. When Europe claims that Hamas is a "legitimate resistance organization" -- rather than a vicious, terrorist organization with no recognizable standard of ethical behavior or morality -- it torpedoes all chances of creating a decently governed State of Palestine -- one that will not be ruled, now or in the future, by rampaging Islamist terrorists. Like it or not -- and frankly this author does not -- the last bulwark keeping radical Islamism from engulfing Europe is Israel. Nevertheless, for decades France has supported the Arab-Muslim world against Israel, the result of latent and not-so-latent anti-Semitism, oil, and most of all, the political pressure of its indoctrinated Islamic community. France's hypocrisy and treachery are famous throughout history. In its weakness, France tries to curry favor with the Arabs and radical Islam, thereby inviting blackmail and setting the table for its own submission. In view of the conduct of Europe in general, and France in particular, it should come as no surprise that by yoking us Palestinians like farm animals to our leaders, who are the real beasts, they are betraying the Palestinians. Europe's policies of encouraging groups such as Hamas, which constantly espouse violence, demolishes the Palestinian effort to achieve a responsible Palestinian state that finally could end the conflict with Israel. The French have naïvely taken the bait: they now associate the Palestinian "Resistance" with the courageous French underground Résistance, which fought the Germans during World War II. As they admire the French Résistance, they incorrectly assume that the Palestinian "Resistance" must be a good thing, too. But, as they well know, there is no way to compare them. The Palestinian "Resistance" is nothing more than terrorist organizations repressing their own people. They do not resist an evil force; they are an evil force. The problem is that in setting up the Arabs to get rid of the Jews -- so the Europeans can pretend to themselves that they had nothing to do with it -- the people they are hurting are not only the Jews and Palestinians. By encouraging Hamas, Islamic Jihad and now even the Islamic State in the region, they are obtusely hurting themselves. That is why overtly and covertly, the French hypocritically support Palestinian terrorism instead of supporting genuine efforts for a peaceful end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They are betting on the wrong pony. That is also why the French support the UN and UNRWA, which perpetuate the Palestinian problem, instead of demanding that the Arab states, where many of the Palestinians reside, absorb them, grant them citizenship and set them free. The truth is that they do not really care about the Palestinians, only about destroying Israel. That is why the European Union so easily removed Hamas from its terrorist list. Similar to this was the French decision unilaterally to recognize the "State of Palestine" -- despite the fact that the Palestinian national consensus government is made up of Hamas and the PLO. Both are unrepentant terrorist organizations. Both not only openly incite terrorism and violence and call for Israel's extinction, but also train their own children for nothing but violence when they are not using them as cannon fodder. All that would seem to show what France really cares about, and it has nothing to do with free speech, democracy, good governance and least of all the well-being of the Palestinians. The only thing it is clear they care about is getting rid of the Jews. France's hypocrisy in calling the Israelis "occupiers" ignores the fact that Israel did not invade, conquer and occupy a Palestinian state: there never has been a Palestinian state. France also ignores the fact that in fairness, the Israelis have never said they wish to destroy the Palestinian people, while, to be frank, every day we Palestinians speak and make plans about how we will destroy Israel. France further ignores the fact that that so-called Palestinian "resistance" -- in the form of the PLO, Fatah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Popular Resistance Committees -- has, since its inception and throughout its history, done nothing but murder and maim Jewish civilians. Now, in new summits of hypocrisy, the International Criminal Court [ICC] is planning to investigate Israel for war crimes because it had the gall to defend itself against terrorism, while what did Europe do? Europe -- in the face of slaughter, bloodshed and atrocities committed by extremist Muslims -- invited every terrorist-sponsoring dictator to join it in a march to protest the very murders that these dictators had paid for. Europe dozes as the Palestinian terrorist organizations continue their ceaseless efforts to destroy the Palestinians, as well as Israel and the Jews. Then Europe awakens periodically to support the Palestinian "Resistance," which bears no resemblance whatever to the French Résistance of World War II. An Arab proverb says, "a dog will have a crooked tail even if you put it in splints for forty years." There is no difference between Hamas's aspirations to be "liberated from the Zionist occupation," and radical Islam's aspirations to be liberated from the "Christian occupation" in Europe -- from France to Andalusia to Vienna -- to enable Islam to take over the world. The willingness of the French to view terrorism, whether Palestinian or Hezbollah, as "legitimate Resistance" is an all-time low. No terrorism is legitimate: Not terrorism against Jews, not terrorism against Palestinians, not terrorism against Christians in the Middle East and not terrorism against cartoonists in France. For the sake of the future State of Palestine, all "Resistance" should be against radical Islam, as embodied by groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State, among others. They are the ones we should resist. They should not be allowed to rule us in some Islamist "Palestinian State." Bassam Tawil is a scholar based in the Middle East. Related Topics:  Bassam Tawil