November 18, 2005: The recent Moslem riots in Europe are making life harder for Islamic terrorists. Europeans have a tendency to deal with a growing problem by leaving it alone, trusting, as with many health problems, the problem will resolve itself. This has led to many parts of Europe becoming safe zones for Islamic terrorists. And many European intelligence and police agencies knew it. But as long as the terrorists did nothing in the country they were operating in, the authorities pretended nothing was going on. This played a part in the recent riots, by young Moslem men, in France and other European nations. The Moslem neighborhoods had become areas ignored by the police. The attitude was that it wasn?t worth the hassle, and risk, to try and police them. This is nothing unique to Europe. All over the world, and for centuries, some neighborhoods, or even regions, were left alone by the police, because the risk did not seem worth the benefit.
In the case of European Moslem neighborhoods, some of the more radical Islamic clerics were even demanding the right to run these areas according to Islamic law (sharia). This was never given serious consideration by any government, but the clerics kept demanding it, and in many cases, were doing it anyway. Women, in particular, were abused, and even killed, without any reaction from the police, for resisting demands from Moslem men that they act in an ?Islamic way? (cover up when outside, always obey the males in their family, and especially marry who their father wants them to.) This treatment of women would sometimes become an issue, especially when girls were murdered for disobeying. But there was never an effort to get to the root of the problem; those old country attitudes including sympathy, and some support, for Islamic terrorism, and the terrorists. Since September 11, 2001, European police have been investigating the terrorist aspect, and were appalled at what they found. Only a minority of European Moslems were supporting the terrorists, and even fewer were joining terrorist groups. But with over twenty million Moslems in Europe, a few percent of them being terrorist supporters adds up to a large number (hundreds of thousands.)
Worse, the recent riots and vandalism did not include any hard core Islamic terrorists. These guys just wanted to stay out of sight so they could get on with their plans. Actually, the Islamic terrorists did not particularly care for the rioting, as it brought lots of police closer to their hiding places. Now there is talk of keeping the police in these Moslem neighborhoods. Not good for Islamic terrorists, good for the potential victims.
