France, Belgium and Germany are only the most recent targets. Other European countries like the United Kingdom have also been hit in the recent past and we have no guarantee that any country will be spared in the near future.

And whilst some would readily argue that Europe is safer than many other parts of the world, as well as safer today than it has been in decades, one cannot ignore the fast-rising concern about security issues of the man in the street.

Euronews reports that Europeans believe that the refugee crisis will mean more terrorism. “Concerns about jobs, crime and security among Europeans have risen since the start of the migration crisis about five years ago.” While sympathy for the plight of desperate people remains, Europeans are afraid that radical militants are taking advantage of a crisis that Europe has not been able to handle. I can sense that this sentiment is increasingly being shared by the Maltese people.

 

A clash of cultures?

One might argue that terrorism is not a new feature of society but it strikes me that it is developing in novel ways.

The pretext for applying terror in the last decades was usually ideological and confined to a nation state as was the case of the Brigate Rosse in Italy, Baader-Meinhof in West Germany, and the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. The pretext of terrorism today is more cultural and religious. It is not confined within any nation-state but is rather exported across borders, as is the case of Al Qaeda and Isis.

In a certain sense this seems to point towards Samuel Huntington’s theory of The Clash of Civilisations and the remaking of the world order which argues that cultural and religious identities will become the principal source of conflict in the world. His theory was developed in response to Francis Fukuyama’s thesis of The End of History, which argued that liberal democracy emerged victorious over all ideological rivals on both the left and right of the political spectrum. According to Fukuyama, the fall of the Berlin Wall – which symbolised the fall of socialism – marked the ‘the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalisation of Western Liberal democracy as the final form of human government’.

 

People demand protection in this world of risk

Tactically, as was the case with Nice and Paris, terrorists are now targeting the most unlikely places by the most unlikely methods. Top-notch security at the central busy airport won’t prevent a terrorist strike in a restaurant in the city square. A search for guns and arms will not be enough when a lorry can become a most deadly weapon.

This makes the terrorist threat altogether more dangerous and therefore calls for more vigilance by legislators, security forces and citizens alike.  Europe has to listen and to act.

 

Nice: terror on the boulevard

On 14 July, we once again joined the French Ambassador and his guests to celebrate Bastille Day, the French National Day. Memories of the two attacks that had left over 150 dead were still fresh but all those present were thankful that the European football championship managed to avoid all threats and dangers and ended up being yet another spectacular sporting festival. Little did we know that terror would strike France again, not long after we left the doorstep of the Ambassador’s residence in Żebbuġ.

France has been hit for the third time in approximately a year but this time the target was not Paris but the seaside city of Nice. A recently radicalised Islamic terrorist drove a truck through a crowd of people who were also celebrating Bastille Day. He drove at high speed for some two kilometres before he was shot dead but not before having left another 84 innocent victims dead.

France – and the rest of Europe – was, once again, devastated. As expected, expressions of solidarity from all around the world flowed in immediately. After all, an attack on France and its values is also an attack on the European way of life – our way of life. Our heart goes out to the French during these times of turmoil.

 

Munich: terror at the supermarket

As I write, news is still coming out about a shooting in a shopping centre in Munich that has left nine people dead and 10 wounded. The police have urged people to avoid public places while shutting down public transport for several hours leaving thousands of people stranded.

While the German government has neither ruled out nor confirmed that the incident is linked to terrorism, the police described the situation as ‘an acute terror situation’ with the suspect being an 18-year-old German-Iranian dual national who lived in Munich.

This attack follows that by a teenage migrant stabbing and injuring five people on a train in Bavaria on Monday: an attack that has already been claimed by ISIS, the Islamic fundamentalist group.

We extend our sympathy to the German people and express our solidarity with them.

 

Is Malta out of the woods?

Interviewed by Dr Andrew Azzopardi, University of Malta criminologist Dr Trevor Calafato is reported to have claimed that not even Malta is ‘out of the woods when it comes to the terrorist threat’.

Dr Calafato is reported to have said that “the issue of whether we are in danger or not depends very much on the objective of the terrorist group, what media coverage it would manage to get, the importance of the event in question and the ease of access to the country being targeted.” 

The government, on the other hand, insists that Malta has not received intelligence about such a threat. Nevertheless, in such situations we cannot but call for more vigilance and prudence.