08/01/2015
The editor and cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo surely believed that publishing cartoons of Muhammad disowning the jihadists of the ISIS or Islamic State was an obligation to defend the sacred liberal principle of freedom of expression. I don't think they realised that, in fact, they were sticking their head out of the trenches of the civilizational war between modernity and barbarism which, in the end, is what they have died for. The issue is that, in Europe, we still refuse to understand the nature of the threat that we're facing. This is not about publishing or not some satirical images, but about thinking or not that Allah is our God and Muhammad its prophet. As we have seen ever since the Islamic State launched its offensive on Iraq, back in June, what awaits unbelievers is clear and simple: deportation or death. More often than not, in fact, outright decapitation.
European governments have taken very seriously the danger entailed by thousands of young men travelling from Europe, most often via Turkey, to enlist in the ranks of the bloodiest jihadism. If they return, thanks to the rights granted to them by their French, Spanish or German passports, they will do so with combat experience, expertise in explosives, and the highest motivation to continue their particular holy war. And no doubt this threat is real: Mehdi Nemmouche, the Frenchman who attacked the Jewish Museum in Brussels last May, had travelled to Syria to join the ranks of jihadism, to give just one example.
Recent estimates set the number of Europeans who have joined the Islamic State between 3000 and 5000 according to the source. In Spain, 80 at the lowest and 200 at most could have done the same. But we should clarify: when we talk about Europeans, we mean nationalised Islamists or Islamists born on European soil. That is, Europeans due to their passport, little else.
This is the result of years of celebrating the culture of denigrating our history and values and of putting multiculturalism before them. Because the real problem for Europe is not that thousands of European citizens are going to kill and die in Syria and Iraq in the name of Allah. The real problem is that from being normal youths they become fanatics and, in the end, ruthless terrorists here, among us.
Our police and intelligence agents move in this ground with one hand tied behind their back because the legal system, prisoner of political correctness, doesn't allow them to be sufficiently aggressive when fighting jihadism, from its cradle to the bomb.
Furthermore, Islamic terrorism isn't and cannot be considered a police matter. This is not an episode of series like Castle or Sherlock where they try to find the murderer after the crime. This is an outdated approach because the need for justice will suffice no-one if we're already dead.
Yesterday, we had bombs in trains and subways; today submachine gun shots (or stabbing, in Israel's case); tomorrow it could be much worse and massive. Action must be primarily preventive. And that requires methods and a philosophy of action very different from a criminal investigation. What sense is there in stopping in an airport a five-year old child to search him but allowing a woman in a burka to pass the customs control without lifting her veil? Why are sermons promoting hatred allowed on the sole reason that they're delivered in mosques?
Defence Minister Pedro Morenés has said jihadism strikes the weak. In fact, it smells fear and takes advantage of the paralysis it creates. Now, after the attack on Charlie Hebdo, police measures will increase, but the fear to say what must be said will have increased. As obvious as it may seem: radical Islam – let alone jihadism – is incompatible with our way of life, values and interests. Here and in any part of the world. West and radical Islam will not and cannot meet, unless we surrender and submit. But everything's possible when we no longer believe in anything and least of all in us.
This article was originally published on Thursday, January 8 in Expansion.