Europe was shaken by another barbaric terror attack Monday — this time in the form of a suicide bomber targeting teen girls at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England.
Twenty-two were counted among the dead and several dozens were left injured in the ISIS-claimed explosion. This is the second major terror attack to strike the United Kingdom in recent months and one of several to hit Europe in the same time frame. Not surprisingly, British prime minister Theresa May raised the terror level for her nation and ordered 5,000 troops to patrol city streets.
Terrorism and militarized streets appear to be the new normal for Western Europe, and Europe’s leaders seem ok with that. An overlooked move by the European Union seems to confirm the continental elite’s desire to silence anyone who has a problem with this situation than trying make the new normal a lot less fatal.
The EU announced on Tuesday that it had come up with proposals to force social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube to tackle material the bureaucrats in Brussels determine is “hate speech.” During these proceedings, EU officials sent their condolences to the victims of the Manchester attack while pushing forth measures that would do more to stop criticism of Islamic terror than they would to stop Islamic terror itself.
Hate speech laws are used in Europe primarily to go after right-wing dissidents who say things about immigration and Islam that upset political elites. It’s all about shutting down speech the establishment doesn’t like rather than protecting supposedly vulnerable minorities.
This mentality was on full display in the wake of the Manchester terror attack. When British political commentator Katie Hopkins called on “Western men” to defend their wives and daughters from future terrorism, a Twitter user reported her to London police for inciting violence. Sure enough, an official account for the police department said that it was investigating Ms. Hopkins. (RELATED: London Metropolitan Police Investigating Terrorism… Criticism)
Right after the attack, several folks on social media were urging their fellow liberals to report anyone who was posting anything deemed “racist” or “Islamophobic” in response to the Manchester bombing. Because the most important thing after kids are shredded by a nailbomb detonated by a suicidal jihadi is to make sure no Muslim has their feelings hurt. (RELATED: Twitter Liberals Fret Over Hurt Muslim Feelings After Manchester Attack)
The furious response to critics of Islamic terror was not equaled by the proposed solutions for dealing with the attack. Instead, Manchester’s tragedy was greeted with the tired calls for “thoughts and prayers,” another candlelight vigil to the nameless god of diversity and the same-old devotion to love somehow winning over hate. Pretty much what you’d expect from a chattering class whose only literary reference is Harry Potter.
The only new addition to this response from the smart crowd was the demand that nobody “politicizes” the cruel slaughter of children — which may be the first time in human history people have made this argument when confronted with dead kids.
Pop star and Hillary Clinton superfan Katy Perry expressed this feeling when asked what we should do after the attack. “I think that the greatest thing we can do is just unite and love on each other. No barriers, no borders, we all just need to co-exist.”
The best thing to do, according to the mainstream consensus in the U.K. and articulated in an article published by The Independent right after the attack, is just to carry on like nothing had ever happened. As BBC personality Katty Kay dejectedly put it, “Europe is getting used to attacks like this… They have to, because we are never going to be able to totally wipe this out.”
It’s odd that Europe’s elite feels it can’t get rid of radical Islam, but at the same time feels it can eradicate the scourge of mean comments on the internet. But it’s not out of deliberate malice or complete stupidity that Western leaders accept this new reality.
EU officials and establishment politicians truly believe that their brand of liberalism is what everyone secretly desires, including the hardened Islamist looking up flight tickets to Syria. They think that eventually the extremists will be defeated once they realize how great it is to live in a progressive, multicultural society.
The Salafists will put down their bomb-making manuals and lose themselves in the wonders of consumerism. They’ll stop taking their religion so seriously and think their faith only requires them to not judge people, unless a person happens to be a “racist.” Their young women will drop the regressive hijab and start going to Ariana Grande concerts like other people their age.
Everything will go smoothly once the radicals realize the superior morality of the postmodern West and decide to join in the fun. In the meantime, Europe will do everything possible to make sure there’s no backlash against them and “xenophobes” are silenced. There must be no disruptions to multicultural progress from the old stock.
To the foes who are supposedly beaten every time somebody tweets they are not giving into hate, this looks like impotence. No force in the history of Earth has ever been cowed by a candlelight vigil after it slaughtered dozens of its enemy’s children.
Another bombing campaign won’t stem the tide of terror when tens of thousands of Islamists are already living in Europe, and more are created every day from the children of immigrants born on European soil. Fundamentalist Islam is only gaining in strength, not weakening, in its interactions with Western liberalism. Just look at the number of former rappers — a sign of full immersion into Western culture — who decided to turn to jihad instead.
Postmodern morality did not win over them. It’s not going to win the fight against Islamic terror based solely on its merits.
The sensible response to these attacks would be to reform the immigration policies that continue to allow terrorists and apocalyptic demagogues into Europe. But to do that is to do the tough and politically incorrect thing.
People who suggest that idea are smeared as Nazis and are most at risk of getting hit with hate crime charges.
You’re attacked less and seen as more sensible by the press if you call for another intervention in the Middle East that will lead to thousands of deaths than if you offer that modest proposal. But the nation building option has been tried to death and has failed every time.
It’s time to give the migration policy option a try. It’s a hell of a lot better than hoping hugs solve everything.
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