Five Lessons from the Christmas Market Attack

[Cathoholic]

DECEMBER 17, 2018

Five Lessons from the Christmas Market Attack​

WILLIAM KILPATRICK

On December 11, a Muslim named Cherif Chekatt opened fire at the famed Christmas Market in Strasbourg, killing three and wounding thirteen.

There are several important lessons to be learned from the incident. Here are five of them:

I. The attack was aimed at Christians . It was no coincidence that the terrorist chose to target a Christmas market. . . .

. . . II. The attack in Strasbourg was predictable . As the Muslim population of France continues to increase, the probability of terror attacks also increases.

The Strasbourg gunman had 26 prior convictions, and, like so many other terrorists, he was well-known to police as a security risk. But, you might ask, if he was well-known, why wasn’t he taken into custody or surveilled more closely?

The answer is that although Chekatt was on France’s “security threats” list, so were about 20,000 other Muslims. As one former police inspector observed: “There are so many people that are involved around the edges of this sort of terrorism … that you can’t keep any sort of meaningful surveillance on them.” . . .

. . . IV. As the threat increases, denial deepens . At a point in time when national borders need to be made more secure, an increasing number of people seem to think that there’s no need for them at all. . . .

. . . V. You will forget about Strasbourg . An important lesson to take away from almost all terrorist attacks is that we quickly forget about them, and thus we tend to grossly underestimate. . . .

Five Lessons from the Christmas Market Attack - Crisis Magazine

 

[Annie]

Good commentary.

When he mentioned the movie made by Clint Eastwood about the train attack foiled by US servicemen, it reminded me that before VietNam, we had movies and books about good guys fighting against our enemies. Now the line is blurred. We cannot make movies about our enemies because that would be seen as racist, even though we could make movies about Afghan interpreters (many of whom remain in Afghanistan despite our promises!) fighting against terrorists, Mexican priests fighting against Mexican drug lords, and the like.

We have blurred the lines between good and evil in our backwards bow to multulturalism.

 

[dvdjs]

We cannot make movies about our enemies because that would be seen as racist,

Racist? How so?

How about a movie about loving our so-called enemies. Is that idea outlandish even on a Catholic forum?

 

[Annie]

For some time, casting people of other than European descent as the bad guy has been seen as contributing to racism.

I love terrorists, in the Christian sense of loving. That does not preclude my wanting to protect other people, whom I also love in the Christian sense, from being killed or injured by terrorists.

Consider Isaias 5:20: Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.

 

[dvdjs]

For some time, casting people of other than European descent as the bad guy has been seen as contributing to racism.

When most of our warfare has involved the killing of people of European descent, it is interesting to ask about our interest in casting people of other races as the bad guys.

 

[Annie]

Please don’t twist my words around.

 

[dvdjs]

Please don’t twist my words around.

I am sorry that you feel that I have twisted your words.
Perhaps I didn’t understand them or the point that you were making about the older movies.

 

[Annie]

Older movies involved European enemies because we were fighting Europeans: WW2 movies, spy movies, etc.

The bad guys in the world now about whom we could make those types of movies are often POC, and the idea is that if we cast POC as bad guys it will increase racism.

Add that to multiculturalism, in which each culture is as good as the next, and we cannot really say things like Islamic terrorism is an evil we should fight against.

I just think that there is something missing in our culture today: an idea of true heroism (sorry, “speaking truth to power” when the power in question is the US government just doesn’t cut it), of fighting against evil, that sort of thing.

 

[dvdjs]

Islamic terrorism is an evil we should fight against.

We can certainly say that terrorism is an evil that we should fight against.
Why attach a religion to it? Are acts of terror committed by Christians somehow better? Are all mulsims accountable for the acts of terrorists who are Muslim?

I just think that there is something missing in our culture today: an idea of true heroism … of fighting against evil, …

I think that we should and do compete against competitors and oppose adversaries. And that we should do it without calling them evil. I think that we should do oppose evil. And that we should do it without calling out ethnic or religious groups. I honestly don’t see what is missing.

 

[Victoria33]

The Strasbourg gunman had 26 prior convictions, and, like so many other terrorists, he was well-known to police as a security risk. But,

That is part of the problem right there. In many countries, one would not be out on the streets with a criminal record like that and assuming those are serious offenses in many countries.

But, did you hear? It has just been in the last news cycle:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-security-churches-idUSKBN1OG2AQ

Finishing the headline, “comments about attacking the Vatican”.

And they found out about this person through wiretaps.

 

[Victoria33]

Imam Tawhidi and many other Muslims do find very serious problems in the community, it’s a bit more than just saying “well, such a Westerner is exaggerating the danger”. I watched Imam Tawhidi debate someone. I knew firsthand, an Egyptian who told me about the problems of radicalism.

It’s not just the periodic terror attack, unfortunately, the Maghreb and Near East Asia have all had huge problems with terrorism, from Morocco to Afghanistan in large part. We are hoping a cease fire holds in Yemen and the Syrian war goes on.

https://twitter.com/Imamofpeace

 

[Cathoholic]

Annie. You are right on.

Islam is not merely a religion but a whole political system too.

There is and is going to be massive cultural fallout from all of this.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Cathoholic]

Victoria33 . . .

Finishing the headline, “comments about attacking the Vatican”.

This is hair-raising Victoria33.

I have heard that before and the push in that direction seems to be building.

I hope and pray for the safety of those in the Vatican and for the Vatican itself even.

 

[Annie]

Terrorism is a tool. Terrorism used to be committed by the Red Army groups and their like, along with the IRA.

All terrorism should be opposed. Islamic terrorism predominates today.

Islamic terrorism excludes non-terrorist Muslims; but specifies a type of terrorism, one which happens to be prevalent today. The fact that others engaged in terrorism in the past is not an issue today.

Had I spoken about the IRA or Irish terrorists in the past, no one would have taken this as an indictment against all Irish people. The same ought to be true today. Hence my mention of bending over backwards above.

 

[Annie]

I didn’t say the people were evil. I think terrorism is evil. Fighting against terrorism is fighting against evil.

(Please stop twisting my words…)

 

[dvdjs]

(Please stop twisting my words…)

I did not mean to accuse anyone of anything, but spoke what I think are good, general ideas.
Thus, I completely support the idea of recognizing terrorism as evil. But I see little reason, however, to suggest that terrorism can belong to a specific religious or ethnic group, or that the specific ethnic or religious group that some given terrorist belongs to needs to be called out.

 

[Annie]

I don’t either, and that’s why I specified the main type of terrorism we are facing now.

 

[Peeps]

We are told on television public service ads, “If you see something, say something.”

But no one says anything because we are afraid (with good reason) that we will not only be disbelieved, but dismissed from our school, job, or organization(s), and possibly even charged with a hate crime because we are demonstrating obvious prejudice against a specific people group.

I personally believe that we need laws in our country that protect us from this. If we think we are “seeing something” that may eventually become a criminal act, we MUST be free to speak up, and if we are wrong about it, then we should NOT be fired or expelled, and we should definitely not face accusations of bigotry, which can mean the end of any kind of life here in the U.S. Of course we will make mistakes–we will see something that we think looks ominous, but it’s actually something very innocent. But we shouldn’t be accused of prejudice if we bring the act to the attention of the authorities, and the person that we spoke up about shouldn’t have the right to ruin our lives because we were attempting to protect the lives of others by speaking up.

The world is all messed up. Good is called evil, and evil is called good.

 

[MonteRCMS]

If an FBI agent makes an error when writing up a Form 302, well, a misremembered Form 302 becomes a legal document … even if it is in violation of procedures being prepared 7 months late instead of seven days after the fact.