Human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali just published a post Paris attacks article in a main newspaper in the Netherlands. She argues that in order to destroy Islamic extremism, Europe must learn the lessons from Israel and should adopt a very strict immigration policy.
Best of Ayaan Hirsi Ali arguments and clever comebacks compilation. Part 1. Part 2.
The French President François Hollande said quite correctly that the attacks in Paris were an act of war by the Islamic State. IS has vowed to launch further attacks on Europe. Therefore the continent must prepare for war and do everything in its power to destroy the Caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Containment and humiliation are not enough. But even if IS is destroyed, Islamic extremism will not. The destruction of IS will even inflame the religious rage for those who long for the Caliphate. European leaders must take a number of important decisions. To prevent more attacks on an even larger scale, the mindset needs to change. Islamic extremists will never succeed in turning Europe into an Islamic continent, but they can trigger a civil war that may turn parts of Europe into the Balkans of the 90s.
European leaders need to do three things in order to destroy the cancer of Islamic extremism. First of all, they must learn from Israel, a country that has has been living under existential threat from its foundation. Islamic extremists are using knives and vehicles for weapons these days, but that's because attacks like the one in Paris have become impossible. Instead of demonizing Israel we should bring their well trained experts to Europe in order to develop a coherent counter terror strategy.
Secondly we must prepare ourselves for an extended public debate. European leaders must eliminate the infrastructure of indoctrination: mosques, madrassas, Islamic schools, websites and propaganda material (pamphlets, books, sermons) are the conveyor belt to violence. The first thing Islamic extremists do, is convincing Muslims that they have a legitimate claim (based on Islamic texts, red.); the means are of secondary importance.
European Governments must wage a battle for the hearts and minds of Muslim communities and explain to them the superiority of liberal democracy. That is a direct attack the Islamic ideology that Islamists are using to convince Muslims to become the enemy of the host country.
Thirdly Europeans need to develop a new integration model that admits immigrants only on the condition that they are prepared to accept European values and reject Islamic politics that makes them vulnerable to the Caliphate.
Present European immigration policy has its weaknesses. Getting citizenship is easy, while there is little that fosters loyalty the the secular national Constitution; it is easy to be admitted to EU countries, with or without appeal to asylum laws; and thanks to the Schengen open borders treaty it is easy for aliens -- once in the EU -- to move from country to country. Due to the migration crisis this situation has now become untenable.
Does this mean a "Fort Europe", a new Iron Curtain in the east and a cordon sanitaire in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic? Yes, it does. In view of Islamic extremism no other strategy makes any sense. If European leaders like Angela Merkel continue to push open borders as a virtue, they will lose their seats in the Government to populists who are more in touch with the voters. It's a pity those people often subscribe to the fanatical, small minded Nationalism that tore Europe apart in the past.
To realize the above Europe will have to revise laws and treaties; this was unthinkable prior to the attacks in Paris. But perhaps this will open the way to rethink the mistakes of the past.
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