The truck attack in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the USA on New Year’s Day killed at least 14 innocent people and wounded another 30 innocent people. A Tesla Cybertruck was used to attack the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas in the USA when one person was killed. Recently, an SUV was driven into a Christmas market in Germany, killing 5 people. Apart from these attacks, several other terrorist attacks have been reported in Europe, the USA, and Canada in recent months. Such terrorist attacks do not cause any visible shock around the world anymore, as such terrorist attacks in one part of Europe, the USA, Canada, or the other appear to have become the order of the day in recent times.
The fact that cannot be missed is that in all such terrorist activities, Islamic extremists (now increasingly being termed as Islamic terrorists) have been involved in carrying out the terrorist acts. What is the cause of such terrorist attacks now?
The fact is that some Islamic groups, such as the Islamic State (IS) and several other Islamic extremist groups, seem to have faith in violence and physical assaults, which they seem to think would help in spreading the domination of the Islamic religion around the world. What is also noteworthy is that these Islamic extremists have loyalty to their religion which cannot be found fault with. However, their loyalty to the country where they are citizens is comparatively much less. In other words, the extremists do not think it to be wrong to launch attacks and disturb peace in the country where they are citizens, if they think that such attacks would help the cause of their religion.
Certainly, the Holy Quran in its original version preaches only love and compassion and does not approve of violent means. Most of the Muslims in the world today do not approve of the violent methods adopted by Islamic extremists, but they remain a silent majority. Obviously, a very small group of Islamic extremists are having false notions and causing violent attacks, but they are doing enough damage to cause huge concern around the world.
In such conditions, it is now clear that the earlier policy of European countries, particularly Germany, which welcomed migrants from several Islamic countries on compassionate grounds without adequate checks and controls, has enabled several Islamic extremists to get a foothold in Europe and create problems. A similar situation has happened in Canada also. In Europe, the USA, and Canada, there are also said to be a significant population of illegal migrants, and U.S. President-elect Trump has repeatedly pointed this out. Most of these illegal migrants may not be violence-prone people, but certainly, some extremist groups in small numbers too could have gotten into this migrant crowd.
Today, it is widely realized by governments and people in Europe, the USA, and Canada that the unchecked entry of migrant populations has become a deep-rooted problem with no immediate feasible solution and is now causing social tension and law-and-order issues in these regions.
It is necessary that governments in Europe, Canada, and the USA should put their heads together and create a task force to identify the violence-prone Islamic extremists and deal with them in an appropriate way to ensure social peace in the countries. The problem has become too serious now, as these affected countries do not have any particular strategy to deal with the violence-prone individuals. If such a situation were to continue any longer, the social harmony in these countries would suffer to a level beyond redemption.
It is not proper to carry out any campaign against the Islamic religion, but certainly, a campaign against Islamic extremists is called for. A strong campaign must also be made amongst peace-loving Muslims to strongly come out and condemn these terrorist attacks, instead of remaining helpless observers.
In any case, it is now clear that by launching attacks on Christmas crowds and New Year’s Day, the terrorists have given a signal that they would not become less violent and attacks would become more frequent in the year 2025. This is a signal that causes concern and requires immediate counteraction.
