European Commissioner Cecilia Malmström was in Malta over the past couple of days as her tenure comes to a close.

It was a bit of a strange one, really. Commissioner Malmström was, of course, given a scathing time by many Maltese on the social media when about a year ago, she was against a burden sharing proposal.

At the time, she was still in the running for the EC Presidential candidate nomination, and seemed to take up the issue of migration on a panEuropean level as a battle cry. But now, months later, her visit was nothing more than a bit of a token gesture. While many seem to think that the Commissioner and the Maltese government revile each other, it is not the case. When asked by the media why she did not have a meeting with Minister Manuel Mallia, she was quick to point out that he was away on official business and was very quick to point out that they often meet in Brussels officially, as well as off the cuff.

While she was here, Commissioner Malmström echoed the worries of Foreign Minister George Vella, in saying that Isis is a threat. Weeks ago, in this newspaper, the Foreign Minister had expressed worry at the fact that Libya seemed to be in the spasms of conflict, and said that given its weakness, the country was susceptible to infiltration by Isis.

No one needs an introduction to Isis. It is hard to believe that Europeans, born and bred, are joining the ranks of the Caliphate and committing atrocities against other Arabs as well as Western citizens. Two Americans have been killed. And UK citizen Jihadi John, as he is known, has already threatened to kill a third, British, national.

IS has already infiltrated Europe. To think otherwise would be to live in complete denial. It is a danger to us because it is amongst us. If young Muslims around Europe are prepared to go to the conflict zone and take up arms for the Caliphate’s cause, then we have to acknowledge that there is a serious problem. There are increasingly higher numbers of Muslims who are heading over to fight, not in the name of liberation from dictators, but to flock to people and a creed that is even more extreme. This organisation makes al-Qaeda look tame in comparison. Security in the Arab world is breaking down. The Arab springs have turned sour and the hope of democracy amongst all nations has long been snuffed out. It should be a lesson to the west. While it is right to intervene in genocide, no one has any real clue of how things could have turned out. Did anyone envisage the set-up of a barbaric de facto state straddling Syria and Iraq? It should teach us a lesson... you cannot parachute democracy into a power vacuum. It never has worked, and it never will work.