That Ineffable Islamic Threat to European Civilisation. posted by Richard Seymour

As threats to life and limb go, terrorists have always been pathetically low on the list compared to, say, motorists or police stations. A recent Europol report on terrorism on the continent, despite having been released a few weeks ago, has been curiously neglected by the media. One outstanding fact obtains: in 2006, of almost five hundred terrorist attacks in Europe, only one was by Islamists - and it failed. While the report mentions a cluster of other attacks in previous years and spend a lot of time discussing terrorist activity originating from Islamist groups, the cold facts indicate that there is little of it about. Much is made of the fact that half of the arrests for terrorist offenses were related to Islamist activity, but we already know that the arrests far outweigh the actual scale of activity. As the report notes, "the arrests and convictions were not necessarily related to terrorist offences that took place during the reporting period." Arrests are a reflection of policy focus, and dont' necessarily correlate to an actual threat. Thus, the report notes that only 32% of those arrested were suspected of involvement in or the preparation of a terrorist attack. Further, "the number of arrests made in relation to Islamist terrorism in the UK is among the highest in the EU". Elsewhere, the largest number of arrests is for separatist activity in France. However, there is no accounting for the perfidy of those who march under the black flag:

The frequency of video statements by members of the original al-Qaeda leadership and other Islamist terrorists shows a marked increase. The propaganda is of greater sophistication, of high quality and more professional. English is used more often, either in direct speech or in subtitles, allowing potential access to a wider audience.

Video attacks, the cunning bastards. At least the Home Secretary can no longer claim that Islamist activity is related to a refusal to speak English.

The report is so far the most systematic attempt by European police to gather together data on this matter, and can be seen as definitive. Indeed, if anything, Europol was pitching for a greater batch of funding with this report, seeking to upgrade itself from a continental crime-fighting force to a mainstay of the 'war on terror'. Every national police or intelligence force contributing data could be said to have a similar reason for wishing to amplify the threat. Yet, the most they could come up with was a single failed attack. I can find only two references to this report in mainstream media outlets, one in the Boston Herald, the other in Deutsche Welle, neither of which refers to these figures, but both of which discuss a 'growing terror threat'.

So much for 'Eurabia' and 'Londonistan'. So much for the Clash of Civilisations. The counter-climactic truth is that the incidence of Islamist activity, including that using terrorist tactics, is concentrated in parts of the world where US imperialism operates.

Labels: 'war on terror', clash of civilisations, europe, europol, islamism, terrorism