Prague, March 23 (CTK) – Islamists make terrorist attacks in the heart of the EU with easiness, while Europe is unable to prevent the attacks or defend itself against them, commentators in the main Czech dailies write on Wednesday, reacting to Tuesday’s fatal terrorist attacks in Brussels.
Terrorists are part of the Muslim communities in some European countries, which proves the failure of the European immigration and integration policies, the commentators write.
The terrorist attacks paralysing Western society have become regular events, to which the EU politicians cannot react but by repeating a toothless mantra about the attacks waged against open democracy, Milan Vodicka writes in Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) on Wednesday.
“Imagine the leaders reacting so in Israel,” Vodicka writes, quoting a participant in a Twitter debate, who commented on the report on EU diplomacy chief Federica Mogherini weeping during a press conference on the Brussels attacks.
Vodicka says the Tuesday attacks may have been motivated by the previous arrest of the “Paris” terrorist Salah Abdeslam. Out of fear that Abdeslam “talked too much,” the organisers may have decided to launch the prepared attack early, before the police’s expected crackdown on them, Vodicka writes.
“The joy at the arrest of Abdeslam on Friday was premature, as was the previous joy at the elimination of Osama bin Laden, whose al-Qaeda is surviving and has even been overtaken by a more efficient Islamic State,” Vodicka writes.
Europe “has perfectly learnt solidarity, but nothing more,” he concludes.
In Hospodarske noviny (HN), Martin Ehl writes that Europe started to pay attention to a change in the atmosphere in the surrounding areas belatedly.
Until now, Europe has been known as a “soft force” that spread stability and prosperity in its member countries and also tried to promote these values outside the continent. However, the environment in the surrounding regions has dramatically changed in the past years. Europeans have been unable to distinguish the change quickly, let alone react to it adequately, Ehl writes.
“The attacks such as the Brussels ones speed up the process of Europe falling apart from inside, which is exactly what the Islamist want. European politicians, involved in tackling a variety of crises, seem incapable of averting the process so far,” Ehl writes.
For Europe, it is not enough to fight terrorism, it must crack down on Islamism, the political ideology of hatred that is behind the phenomenon of terrorism, Jakub Janda, from the European Values think-tank, writes in Lidove noviny (LN).
Europe must demand an unconditional integration of all Muslim immigrants in terms of their acceptance of the laws of liberal democracy and values respected by European societies. Religion must not be a reason for exempting groups from liberal and democratic rules or turning a blind eye to violence in Muslim communities, anti-Semitism, oppression of women and human rights violation, Janda writes.
Europe must introduce a differentiated approach to immigrants from various countries regarding their specific integration needs, Janda writes, adding that integration is not a mere technical process but its goal is to put immigrants in harmony with their new environment. The integration of Ukrainians differs from that of Iraqis, Janda writes.
It is also necessary to prevent negative foreign ideological and financial influence on local Muslim communities, cut off the radicalising extremist influence on them by entities from countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, he writes.
Pravo´s commentator Michal Mocek, too, writes that European politicians must change their approach to terrorism.
“They are left with no other possibility than to prepare new methods to face the terrorist threat more effectively. Their dramatic statements on how the democratic society would not allow itself to be deterred, and the spectacular mobilisation of the state power and other spectacles which politicians staged in reaction to last year’s bloody attacks in Paris are definitely inadequate,” Mocek writes.
He says he expects the Brussels attacks to enhance the pressure for the more thorough and consistent checks of the immigrants who have already entered Europe, let alone those who plan to do so.
The pressure of those seeking the extreme measure of a total closure of Eurpean borders can be expected to intensify as well, Mocek writes.
