More Terror Arrests
Right now, the media is running with the arrests by German police yesterday of three Islamic militants on charges of plotting to attack US targets in Germany. What's scary is that two of the guys are German converts to Islam - in other words, they wouldn't look like middle easterners, just ordinary Germans. The third was Turkish.
It's reported that they had been trained in Pakistan and had links to Al-Qaida. I'm not going into much detail now, because they have just been arraigned and not all the facts of the case have come out yet.
But these arrests should not distract from the fact that there has been a whole string of terror arrests/incidents in Europe recently:
- On Monday, Danish police arrested eight immigrants (six later released) in 11 raids for alleged terror plots, and links to Al-Qaida. They had been under surveillance for some time.
- Four accused terrorists were due to go on trial this Wednesday after being arrested by Danish police last year. This may have been related to the plot mentioned above.
- Yesterday, three Islamic militants were arrested in Norway, on charges of plotting to attack the US and Israeli embassies.
- Last week, in Leeds, UK, a man was charged with possession of terror manuals and bomb-making instructions. He is currently free on bail.
It's very easy for Americans to become blase about this issue again, since it has been several years since there was a terror attack on US soil. Presidential candidate John Edwards (see previous post) called the war on terror a "political phrase". That may score a few political points, but he is dead wrong. It is a real war, against an enemy that sees the US as Satan himself. The threat is different than the one in Europe, but not less than it. The USA simply does not have the large Muslim communities of Europe, and the Muslims that live there are much better assimilated. But terror against the US is not confined to the continental United States, as the recent arrests in Germany, Norway, and of course, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan show.
Now to keep this all in perspective, all this pales a bit compared to the two bombs near Islamabad, Pakistan, which killed 21 people and injured 78 on Tuesday. Still, as I have said before, Europe is slowly starting to resemble the very places that most of its immigrants come from. To some people, that's a good thing, I suppose.
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6 comments:
Headline:
Terrorist attacks kill 50 in Germany last year.
Headline:
Traffic deaths in Germany total 5,000 last year.
The latter is true, the former not even close.
The latter is actually treated as good news because the number is dropping every year, the former with outrage and calls for a reduction in civil liberties, staving off islamic immigration, etc. So hypocritical.
That's a valid point, but part of the reason for the discrepency is that the vast majority of highway deaths are accidental, while all terrorism is deliberate. Also, if you expand the definition of terror to include victims of "honor killings" and other such violence, the number killed goes way up.
Anyway, compare it this way. Compare the billions $$$ that Germans (as well as most countries) spend each year on automobile safety. Not just car inspections, but highway construction/repair, safety equipment, driving lessons, enforcing traffic laws, etc. When you add all this up, I'm willing to bet that it's far, far more than the amount they spend on anti-terror programs.
You could also argue that hits on civil liberties and immigration have parallels here too. After all, you can't drive anywhere you want, as fast as you want (most places), or drive without a license. You also can't import cars that are unsafe for the road either.
Now obesity on the other hand, kills more people than terrorism or traffic deaths, and you really hear too little about that. But that's another topic...
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The thing is, it's pointless to get worked up about something and spread fear of Muslims under every bed.
What do you think of the fact that two of the three were Germans converted to Islam? What about your anti-immigration stance now?
I don't think it's entirely fair to call my stance "anti-immigration". I just ask for immigration to be slowed down, not ended entirely.
Anyway, this doesn't change my feelings a bit. I doubt that these men spontaneously converted to Islam all on their own. Certainly they were led into it, just like cult leaders usually take in followers. In 2005, a Belgian woman who married an immigrant and converted to Islam conducted a suicide attack in Iraq. That certainly didn't ease my mind on the future of Islam in Europe either.
Now they are looking for 10 more guys besides those first three.
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