The terror attacks in Paris on Friday night, which left at least 129 dead and hundreds wounded, is yet another proof that the powers that be are not doing enough to destroy the Islamic State group that has claimed responsibility for the heinous crime.
Though the world leaders often issue strong statements highlighting the need to join hands in fighting terror, the implementation part leaves much to be desired, allowing the evil elements to continue their rampage at their time and will and at locations of their choice.
According to French authorities, three co-ordinated teams worked behind Friday’s atrocity, in which seven terrorists were also killed. One of the Paris attackers has been identified as Ismael Mostefai, a 29-year-old Frenchman who had been flagged for links to radicalism. His family members have been detained and are being questioned.
French Muslim groups have firmly denounced the attacks and some are concerned they will prompt a backlash against France’s overwhelmingly moderate Muslim community.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged world leaders on Saturday to prioritise the fight against terrorism as they gathered for the G20 summit in Antalya, saying the Paris attacks claimed by Islamic State showed the time for words was now over.
As rightly pointed out by the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, to Euronews on Saturday, no country, even those with strict border controls, could consider itself safe from the threat being posed by the Islamic State.
“What we clearly see is that nobody is immune. This attack can happen anywhere, it can happen if you open your border, it can happen if you shut your border, it can happen if you are an open society, it can happen if you are a closed society, it can happen in Paris, it can happen in any other city,” Gargash said.
Marisa Porges, who formerly handled the White House cybersecurity policy for the National Economic Council and served as a counterterrorism policy adviser in the Departments of Defence and Treasury, wrote on www.philly.com yesterday that the most serious attack on Paris since World War II “is just the start of a storm and the fact that one of the attackers at the Stade de France was found with a Syrian passport ….underscores the major problems facing Europe and the West as greater numbers of foreign fighters return home - likely more radicalised, better trained and with additional sources of support”.
As Porges asserted, the Islamic State has now become the dominant international terrorist threat. It has claimed “the recent bombing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula.”
“The Islamic State is sending a message to the international community, including the US, about its growing capabilities, about its intention to target Western interests - and, about the price of international involvement in the Syrian conflict.”
Yes, the time for rhetoric got over long ago. What is needed is concrete action against the terrorists and their backers.