alt-think.com

The civilized world must change thinking!

Not all President-elect Tweets in the past have proven so spot-on as the one, Donald Trump tweeted yesterday following the presumably islamistic terror attack on a German christmas market in Berlin, and further terror attacks in Istanbul and Zurich the very same day.
The civilized world must change thinking!
He could be right. By now, we know the symbolic public and state procedures that have followed similar attacks in Paris, Nice, Brussels, Istanbul and elsewhere: We condemn the attacks, we stand in solidarity with the families of the victims and the traumatized cities, we vow to protect our open societies and democratic values, we will not allow terrorism to influence our daily behavior and we will make intelligence and security services around the globe co-operate more closely.
But is this really enough? Debatable.
The real danger that we face today is, that by applying a too soft and open view on the terrorist threat, we will undermine the very basis of our democratic systems: the monopoly of power of the state in combination with the state responsibility to protect our safety. In case that a democratic Government cannot render this guarantee, people will start to go for the extreme. And select a leader who can deliver on the process without any compromise or as a Philippine citizen had put it yesterday: Duterte (President of the Philippines) is bad for human rights, but the people can walk safely in the streets again. The problem with these leaders is that once they are unleashed, it is very difficult to tame them back.
In order to find a cure for the current threats, we have to first face the ugly face of reality, throwing all political correctness overboard. Do not start the blame game of past events, actions or political decisions, but simply take a clear view of the current situation:
  1. By allowing millions of islamic refugees and former islamist fighters uncontrolled from crisis regions into our countries, we have imported a real security threat
  2. Terrorists can freely move within Europe and supply themselves with weapons. They hate us and want to harm and kill us
  3. Islam has a serious problem if it cannot control extremist movements and terror. Terror today is not buddhist, hindu, jewish or christian; we have seen 100% islam background
  4. There is a series of Governments, who openly or covertly (but known to our Governments) support islamist and terror organizations around the World
  5. Some countries are better than others in protecting their citizens
Accepting these truths, one can work to find and execute a cure, for which logically there have to be the following cornerstones:
[Preamble]
The objective must be total eradication and fight on all fronts. Half-hearted responses will not work.
  1. 100% registration of all refugees and returnees from war zones. Regular security checks. Maximum surveillance. Check of identities with home countries. Lots of surprise checks and controls. 100 % surveillance of any islamist movement. Zero tolerance for islamist ghettos or no-go zones for police and security forces.
  2. Immediate two year suspension of Schengen agreement for all countries. Military grade fight agains trafficking groups in EU and abroad. Immediate repression against all open and covert market places for weapons within Europe. Create European centers of excellence to strongly oppose terrorism: finance, cyber, trafficking, identities. This could be a great European project, better than building new armies.
  3. Serious discussion with islamist leaders around the world to make them understand their responsibility for peace and to motivate them for strong and sustained messages against war, terrorism, hate. If they do not comply,  immediately blacklist them and their followers, and fight them financially and electronically.
  4. Out and highlight Governments and leaders loud and clearly who support, finance or tolerate terrorism or provide hiding space for terrorists. Stop immediate co-operation with countries who are not complying, even if this comes with an economic impact for us. Start UN Security council initiative to fight terrorism jointly with all veto powers in the UN: US, Russia, UK, France and China all have a shared interest in stopping this danger for humanity.
  5. Learn from countries like Israel, who live for decades with enormous terrorist threats how to protect, prevent and enjoy life at the same time. It is possible. But surveillance and protection have to start much earlier and at different inflection points, and the European countries have to learn a lot.
Although helpful in the long-term it does not help now to talk about development aid or peace initiatives for crisis regions. The enemy has already arrived and moves within our societies, as all terror attacks in the past have painfully proven. We need to act in our countries.
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