A bustling European metropolis has once again been hit by terror.
Brussels was rocked by explosions at its airport and within its metro system early Tuesday, leaving at least 30 dead and dozens more injured. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the carnage. It is the second large-scale act of terror done in the group’s name since November’s Paris attacks.
One of the most depressing aspects about the latest attack is how it seems like it was bound to eventually happen.
The attacks come only a few days after the mastermind behind the last major act of terror on European soil was apprehended in Brussels. The Belgian city has found itself in total lockdown in recent months over threats from militants and raids on possible terror cells. The same place that hosts the European Parliament has also become a breeding ground for radical Islam thanks to the large number of unassimilated communities that exist in Brussels. (RELATED: Step Inside The One District In Brussels That’s Connected To Nearly Every Major Terror Attack On The West)
In addition to the city’s local problems, there’s the European Union’s inability to control its borders and its unwillingness to come up with a serious resolution to its migrant crisis — a crisis which has seen hundreds of thousands of unvetted individuals to come into the continent.
All of these unfortunate trends leads to Brussels serving as a city ripe for the horror we witnessed today.
But, similar to what happened in the aftermath of Paris, the bombings are being treated by some like a tragic, yet unavoidable natural disaster rather than something committed by our fellow men. We even had a repeat of the meaningless expressions of “solidarity” and hashtags that followed other deadly jihadi attacks.
The ultimate responsibility for the attacks, of course, lies with the Islamic terror groups that train, sponsor and plan to murder innocent civilians in the name of Allah. But European leaders can not deny their fault in the matter.
After the Paris attack evidence emerged that at least two of the attackers had come in the recent migrant wave, but Europe’s political leaders did little to rectify their bad immigration policies. Migrants were still able to stream across from the Middle East and North Africa with few impediments. Countries like Germany were still promising to take in so-called refugees and leaders from all over the continent were quick to condemn nationalists who would point the finger at Islamic migrants.
Instead of acknowledging the factors that allow these attacks to continue happening, most Europeans sought to overlook the situation and hope everything would return to normal. In fact, the two most popular reactions to the Paris slaughter was a husband of a victim declaring that by withholding his hate he would defeat terrorism and a father telling his young son planting flowers would stop bullets.
Numerous celebrities and public figures urged the public to react with “open hearts” when a sensible solution was to close borders. (RELATED: ‘Open Hearts’ Let The Terrorists Strike Again)
The real question is how many more of these attacks can Europe suffer while doing nothing about the problem within itself? Another candlelight vigil is not going to make the threat of radical Islam go away, nor is the EU’s recent deal with Turkey going to secure borders.
In fact, that deal — made only last week — might exacerbate the problem. It allows more Syrian nationals into the heartland of Europe and by grants those with Turkish paperwork free access to travel throughout most of the continent. (RELATED: EU’s Deal With Turkey Did Nothing To Curb Influx)
The latest terror attack is another reason that Europe’s leaders have to get serious about the risks of continuing to champion mass immigration and worrying more about “Islamophobia” than radical Islam. More of these attacks are going to take place unless countries like Belgium get a handle on its borders and starts cracking down on those who foment and give shelter to jihad.
Brussels conducted mass raids in the wake of the Paris attack and was supposedly keeping an eye on potential threats. In response to all the attention on terror in the city, the local government even released a joyfully oblivious ad in January that sought to dispel the notion the EU center was threatened by Islamic terror. (RELATED: FLASHBACK: Brussels Ridiculed Idea Of Islamic Violence In Ad)
Tuesday proved that ad very wrong.
If an attack can happen in the place that’s arguably done the most to prevent a terror strike from happening, there are deeper problems at work here. The surveillance state and police raids can only do so much when the political class turns the other way when faced with the homegrown, Islamist menace.
