Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Muslim Terrorists Target Europe Muslim Terrorists Target EuropeOctober 6, 2010 October 6- Militant Islam Monitor -When Times Square would be bomber Faisal Shazad was sentenced to life in prison this week he told the court "The war with the Muslims has just begun". Yesterday an Al Qaeda leader said that gunmen are already in the U.K. and Germany poised to carry out Mumbai style attacks. The aim of such attacks is to create chaos and destabilize societies by disrupting daily life and inflicting financial damage on the West. The security forces are hampered by the fact that the Muslims who plan to perpetrate attacks have Western passports and can move around virtually unhindered and go abroad to receive military training. According to the AFP: "Any attack against European cities and the United States will likely rely on militants with Western passports, who can more easily avoid detection, while reinforcing Al-Qaeda propaganda about a global struggle, experts say. The mounting threat posed by "Western foreign fighters" has haunted security services since the attacks of September 11, 2001, and authorities have struggled to track suspects travelling to Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia to forge terror links." The security situation in Europe is further complicated by the existence of Muslim enclaves and a steadily growing Muslim population. As of 2007 about 16 million Muslims live in the EU with 53 million in Europe. The Muslim population in Europe has tripled in 30 years due to immigration and high birthrates. It has been predicted that by 2050 one out of five Europeans will be Muslim. The London bombings were carried out by Muslims most of whom were born and grew up in Britain and attests to the fact that it is naive to assume that native born Muslims will fully assimilate and integrate into British or European society.(For profiles of the London bombers see): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4678837.stm .This poses an enormous problem in dealing with radicalization. Dutch politician Geert Wilders has called for a ban on immigration to Holland from Muslim countries and is a vociferous opponent of Turkish membership in the EU. An August 10 2010 AFP article entitled "Terror Warning Over Muslims Radicalised in Prison"concluded that : "Hundreds of Muslims radicalised in British prisons could launch a "new wave" of homegrown terrorism against the country with lone attacks that are difficult to prevent, experts warned Friday….The highly-motivated but poorly-trained individuals would be sent out to try their luck, as terrorists shift their focus from mounting large-scale, coordinated attacks, said the journal of the defence and security think-tank…It added that Britain had the greatest to fear from homegrown terrorism of any country in the West and conditions were such that terrorists could strike at any time." http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jdwYb9c6Fio-NY3ovzSkwCCyvSCQ In a WSJ op ed the head of the Centre for Social Cohesion in the UK, Douglas Murray, asked the question "When will our luck run out? He also wrote that a "Mumbai-style attack in Western Europe is all too conceivable."http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531682000652668.html? One can only hope that he is wrong but security forces world wide will be hard pressed to prevent such attacks. |