The terrorist outrage in Paris

A series of coordinated terrorist attacks occurred in Paris and its northern suburb, Saint-Denis on the night of November 13, 2015. The attackers killed 130 people, including 89 at the Bataclan theatre where they took hostages before engaging in a stand-off with police. 368 people were injured, 99 of them seriously. Seven of the attackers […]

A series of coordinated terrorist attacks occurred in Paris and its northern suburb, Saint-Denis on the night of November 13, 2015. The attackers killed 130 people, including 89 at the Bataclan theatre where they took hostages before engaging in a stand-off with police. 368 people were injured, 99 of them seriously. Seven of the attackers also died while authorities continued to search for accomplices.
President François Hollande declared that France has been the target of an act of war. Hollande himself was at a soccer match at the Stade de France when an explosion went off at the entrance, killing several people and injuring more. The scale and devastation of these attacks suggest a major operation; it’s almost certain that the attackers were working with many people within France’s borders.
Since the Sept. 11 2001 attacks in the United States, the attacks by Islamic State militants in Paris less than two weeks ago have awakened a patriotic fervor in France and may have redefined the global war against terror.
Predictably, the harrowing scenes of carnage in Paris on Friday are fueling calls to shut down borders and halt the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Western nations. Since the Charlie Hebdo attacks, ISIS gunmen and suicide bombers have struck repeatedly and over a large area. In October, more than 100 people were killed in Turkey. Few months ago, they sprayed beaches with bullets in Tunisia and just last week, they caused carnage in a Shia Muslim neighbourhood in Beirut.
ISIS militants also destroyed a Russian airliner over Sinai this month, killing all 224 people on board, apparently in retaliation for President Vladimir Putin’s decision to intervene militarily in Syria. Even before the attacks, several European governments were taking steps to tighten borders and control the flow of refugees elsewhere.
These responses are wrong. Confusing refugees with terrorists is morally unacceptable and, as a matter of strategy, misguided. Stemming the exodus of refugees from Syria must be an important part of any comprehensive plan to end the Syrian war. Building new barriers to keep them out with the absurd argument that Muslims are inherently dangerous could provide propaganda benefits to the Islamic State.
A common strategy with common objectives and a common approach is what is required to make the war against ISIS more effective. Greater official intrusiveness into the private lives of citizens through expanded data and internet access laws may come to be seen as unavoidable. The despicable attack is testing the commitment of the international community’s obligation to protect civilians fleeing war and persecution which is enshrined in human rights law and principles that many nations have championed over the past century.
There is no justification for the Paris terrorist attacks. Fellow Muslims have denounced their actions that have vicious disregard for the innocent. It is pervasive, ruthless, and lethal and, it continues to mutate. While regretting the loss of innocent lives in the terrorist activities by ISIS, the Paris attack is condemnable as it is a direct fallout of the conflict in Syria and Iraq and the muddled manner in which the West and the Arab states have created monsters where there were none.
While hoping this will be a wakeup call to the West and the world to seek urgent peace in Iraq and Syria, there is need to warn against xenophobic attacks in the wake of the Paris attack. This is against the backdrop of reports of attacks against religious minorities in France.
The world is engaged in a conflict with a vicious enemy that is committed to violence even against innocents in order to make an ideological point. Therefore the international community must unite and resist the resolve of terrorists to impose their pernicious ideology on humankind and make fear a constant companion.