After the terrorist act committed by the Islamist in Vienna, Austrian Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz promised that the country’s authorities will fight terrorism with all their might. “This is a struggle between civilization and barbarism, and we will fight it with all determination,” he said to the nation on Tuesday, November 3.
A series of terrorist attacks in Europe
The night before, in the crowded Viennese quarter “Bermuda Triangle” near the central synagogue and the Vienna Opera, the criminal opened fire on passers-by. Four people were killed: two men and two women. Another 22 people were injured, including one policeman.
“I am Samuel”: Demonstration at Place de la République in Paris, October 18
The attack in Vienna came just days after a string of Islamist attacks in France. On October 16 in Paris, an 18-year-old Chechen, born in Moscow, shouts “Allahu akbar!” attacked with a knife on 47-year-old history and geography teacher Samuel Pati, killed and beheaded him.
On 29 October, an attack by a terrorist armed with a knife killed three visitors to the Notre Dame Basilica in Nice and injured six others. And two days later, on October 31, an unknown person opened fire in front of the Greek Orthodox Church in Lyons and wounded its priest.
Large terrorist cell revealed in Spain
Against this background, the message of the European Union police service Europol about the disclosure of a large network of Islamists in the EU came in handy. The Spanish police managed to find a cell of jihadists in the north of the country who were preparing terrorist attacks on behalf of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.
Demonstrations in memory of the murdered teacher in Paris, October 18
“The cell has been actively disseminating jihadist propaganda on the Internet with the aim of recruiting and indoctrinating young people,” Europol said in a statement. Some of the jihadists’ many social media accounts had over 10,000 followers, according to the agency.
The recruited young people were then physically and psychologically trained to carry out terrorist attacks, including taught to handle cold weapons and firearms. It took the Spanish police two years to uncover the network.
Terrorists mostly act alone
Overall, the number of terrorist attacks in Europe declined slightly in 2019, according to Europol: terrorists managed to carry out 21 attacks, while 119 planned attacks were prevented. “Thus, the number of terrorist attacks prevented clearly exceeds the number of attacks carried out,” the Europol report says. At the same time, it was mainly single terrorists who managed to realize their criminal plans. The jihadists operating in the group are usually exposed and neutralized by the special services in a timely manner.
Austrian Chancellor Kurz lays a wreath at the scene of the terrorist attack in Vienna
Despite this trend, the threat of terrorist attacks in Europe continues to persist, said Thomas Renard, a security expert at the Egmont Institute in Belgium. Today, terrorists mostly act alone, even if they have connections with jihadists. “They are the heirs of the so-called” caliphate “of IS in Syria and Iraq and are responsible for ensuring that even at a lower level of terrorist threat, terrorist attacks occur regularly,” says the analyst.
Even after the defeat of the Islamic State, the essence of Islamist propaganda remained largely the same: jihadists incite “good Muslims” against the “depraved, immoral West”, praise the global struggle of Islamists against infidels and call for revenge for the actions of the West against Muslims, Renard explains.
50,000 Europeans have ties to Islamists
According to the expert’s estimates, about 50,000 people living in Europe and having connections with jihadists are currently in the field of view of the security services. Many of them are either IS fighters who returned from Syria, or those who wanted to join this group, but were stopped at the Turkish-Syrian border.
Flowers near the Notre Dame Basilica in Nice
The personal characteristics and motivation of terrorists differ in each case, which complicates the work of the intelligence services, continues Thomas Renard. For example, the perpetrator of the terrorist attack in Vienna was an Islamic State supporter. In the past, he intended to travel to Syria to fight on the side of IS, but was detained and sentenced in April 2019 to 22 months in prison for participating in a terrorist organization. In December 2019, he was released early. His close ties with IS is also evidenced by the fact that this group claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in Vienna.
In turn, the perpetrator of the Nice attack had less real-life contact with Islamists and is believed to have embraced radical ideology on the Internet. In many such cases, no terrorist organization claims responsibility for the attack, Thomas Renard points out.
One of the causes of terrorism is the marginalization of young people
At the same time, an overly harsh reaction of politicians to terrorist attacks can lead to the opposite result, the expert warns. On the one hand, the special services must analyze their mistakes and learn from them. On the other hand, it is known that cooperation between police, schools, prisons and social services – along with monitoring of social networks – yields optimal results. An early warning system for youth radicalization is particularly important, since the majority of terrorists are between the ages of 18 and 25, Renard emphasizes.
As for the performers of high-profile terrorist attacks, who become role models for their young followers, politicians and the media play a key role in this issue, I am sure. about. Director of the International Center for Counter Terrorism (ICCT) in The Hague, Alexander von Rosenbach. Terrorists thirst for publicity, so their names and ideas should be mentioned as little as possible, he is sure.
The ICCT expert also advocates a comprehensive approach to counter terrorism. He recalls that people who find support there, as well as ideology that fills their lives with meaning, are mainly associated with radical groups. Therefore, according to von Rosenbach, European countries should pay special attention to the marginalization and problematic position of such young people in society and try to understand why they feel like outsiders. The topic of terrorism cannot be approached only from the point of view of security, sums up Alexander von Rosenbach.
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