Pray-for-Barcelona
Europe is finished, kaput – it has given up.
By Giulio Meott – Arutz Sheva
13 people killed in Barcelona. There is no strategic reason to attack Spain, a poor country, nonexistent on the military and international fronts. Radical Islam simply loves killing “infidels”, especially on the Ramblas. And the intimidation works.
It was a spectacular sequence in 2004: the bombs at Atocha, the elections, Zapatero’s victory, the rapid withdrawal from Iraq. Then we should have begun to understand that the West, this West, was falling apart. I hope that the candle shops in Barcelona are closed. The more we light candles, the more they enjoy butchering us.
Thirteen years after the Madrid bombings, we have responded with the same script: hiding the images of pain, repeating that “Islam is a religion of peace”, proclaiming that we will not change our “lifestyle”, eradicating the fundamentals of our civilization – freedom of expression, freedom of thought, human dignity – the very bases of the Jewish-Christian West.
Radical Islam is the greatest threat to Europe after Soviet Nazism and Communism. But we are not willing to question the pillars that led to the current disaster, such as multiculturalism and mass immigration. We didn’t shut down the Salafite mosques, we didn’t expel the radical imams, we didn’t ban foreign funding of mosques. Europe has never had the political will to make war on ISIS and other jihadist groups. Otherwise, Raqqa would have already fallen.
We fight against climate change and for equality in the world. But we are not ready to fight for our civilization. We are only able to say “pray for Barcelona”.
Two years ago, speaking to the daily newspaper El Pais, a Spanish police officer said, “we are kaput and in the future it will be much worse.” In recent months, the Islamic State and other jihadists have produced videos and documents urging Muslims to regain al-Andalus, as they call Spain. On June 3, 2016, ISIS released a video in which al-Andalus was quoted four times. Spain is the only non-Muslim country mentioned in the video. In another video, the Islamic State swears to liberate “the occupied lands, from Jakarta to Andalusia”. That policeman was right: we’re kaput!
But not because Islamic fanatics dream of regaining Spain or killing Westerners on the Ramblas. We are finished because it has become fashionable in the West to romanticize the Islamic past of Spain, to treat the Catholics of Reconquista as fanatics and to present the lost caliphate as a paradise of tolerance. Islamic fanatics consider history, culture, religion and symbols much more seriously than we do. In this sense, we are finished!
Giulio Meotti
The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book “A New Shoah”, that researched the personal stories of Israel’s terror victims, published by Encounter and of “J’Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel” published by Mantua Books.. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary.