{"id":87936,"date":"2019-04-29T17:03:22","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T00:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87936"},"modified":"2019-04-29T17:03:22","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T00:03:22","slug":"why-is-europe-burying-its-head-in-the-sand-on-jihadi-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/29\/why-is-europe-burying-its-head-in-the-sand-on-jihadi-terror\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is Europe Burying Its Head in the Sand on Jihadi Terror?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Eyal Zisser \/ Israel Hayom \/ JNS.org<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The jihadist war being waged by radical Islamist groups across the globe has never stopped at the gates of holy sites and places of worship. Indeed, worshipers in these places have become legitimate and convenient targets for jihadists in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia \u2014 as we learned from the recent massacre in Sri Lanka, and in recent years in Europe as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minority communities, mostly Christians, are persecuted in large portions of the Islamic world, and the tolerance once shown to Jews and Christians has now been replaced by extremism, threatening the continued existence of Christianity and other religions in these places. Some 70 years after the end of Jewish life in Iraq and Syria due to persecution and expulsions, the Middle East\u2019s Christian community is now disappearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Islamic State has engaged in the systematic destruction of churches in the territories it has held, but churches are attacked and often burned as a matter of routine in other Arab and Muslim countries, which are struggling, despite the efforts of their rulers, to protect their Christian minorities. The extremists also destroy mosques that don\u2019t share their radical views and have targeted them in hundreds of attacks within the framework of jihad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In light of these attacks, Europe\u2019s voice has barely been heard. Due to their desire to maintain political correctness, European governments have failed to stand in defense of Christian and other communities in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, out of fear they will be perceived as enemies of Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

APRIL 29, 2019 3:26 PM0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York Times Is \u2018Cesspool,\u2019 Israeli Ambassador to US Says<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Israel\u2019s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, has called The New York Times a cesspool of hostility towards Israel.\u201d In remarks…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s interesting to note that radical Islam has found a partner in the form of the neo-Nazi far-right, whose members are behind hate crimes against Jewish synagogues, but also against Muslim mosques, the most recent case being in New Zealand. In the Israeli context, these two camps are joined by the far-left, which is flooding Europe with a tidal wave of anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jihad, however, made its way to European shores a while ago. It has been reported in recent years that in France alone, many churches have been attacked by extremists, the majority of them Muslim. The authorities in Europe are silent on this too. They apparently believe the most effective way to contend with extremism and terrorism is to ignore and contain it, in the hope that it will simply disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question of Europe\u2019s approach to radical Islam has resurfaced in the wake of the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, one of France\u2019s most important historical and religious symbols. The reason for the blaze is still unknown, and it could be that a technical mishap \u2014 the site was under renovation \u2014 was behind the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet it was fascinating to see the outrage in Europe toward anyone who hinted at the possibility of arson, perhaps by extremists. No one is allowed to suggest this possibility, despite the track record of church attacks. This is also the approach, particularly in France, to any terrorist attack that takes place on the continent, where the jihadist aspect is blurred and disregarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe still believes that burying its head in the sand is the best way to cope with the challenge posed by radical Islam, but time and again we see that denying the existence of a problem doesn\u2019t solve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can assume the problem will only worsen in light of Europe\u2019s failure to absorb the waves of Muslim immigration to the continent. These immigrants currently represent less than five percent of the entire population of Europe, but that could spike due to low natural birth rates among native Europeans. And the ratio of Muslims in some large European cities, such as Paris or Brussels, is already around 20 percent or higher. An effort to absorb these immigrants and accommodate them across the continent \u2014 while also fighting radical Islam with determination \u2014 is the order of the day, but in Europe, no one is ready to acknowledge this challenge, let alone tackle it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eyal Zisser is a lecturer in the Middle East History Department at Tel Aviv University. <\/em>A version of this column first appeared in <\/em>Israel Hayom.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Eyal Zisser \/ Israel Hayom \/ JNS.org The jihadist war being waged by radical Islamist groups across the globe has never stopped at the gates of holy sites and places of worship. Indeed, worshipers in these places have become legitimate and convenient targets for jihadists in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia \u2014 as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}