Isn’t it a relief that all those jihadi terror attacks have stopped? I mean, they must have. You hardly read anything in the media any more about some swivel-eyed follower of the Religion of Peace mowing down a street full of pedestrians or chopping off the heads of random passers-by.
But they haven’t stopped at all. The media and police have just stopped telling us about them.
In fact, the murderous mullahs have been busier than ever.
Jihadists have carried out or attempted a terror attack every fortnight in Europe following the fall of the Islamic State, according to a new study.
Remember when “far-right extremists” were warning that allowing tens of thousands of Islamic State jihadis to slink back into Europe was a recipe for disaster? The only thing “far-right” about them was that they were far more right about what was inevitable than the open borders fanatics swooning that “refugees are welcome”.
The new report concludes that the threat from Islamist terror – although diminished in the wake of the collapse of Islamic State – remains at levels “that would have been seen as close to disastrous a decade previously”. It says that “the tens of thousands of radicals scattered across Europe have not disappeared” just because of Islamic State’s defeat.
The study by the Counter Extremism Group draws on a database of plots made public by the authorities both in the UK and on the Continent that has been maintained since January 2014. Prior to the defeat of Islamic State, jihadists carried out or tried to carry out close to one attack a week in Europe.
The report’s author warns that the database is “not exhaustive” and that “there are potentially more plots that took place in this period”[…]
In total, 11 of the plots “led to either deaths or injuries”, with six attacks in France, four in the UK and one in Italy. Twelve people have been killed and 39 injured, according to the report. Islamists continue to target the UK, France and Germany, just as they did during Islamic State’s existence. All the plots targeting Germany were disrupted.
Notably, too, the terrorists are following exactly the script laid down by ISIS in its propaganda publications.
The report suggests that ‘lone actor plots’ carried out by individuals have become increasingly common, including eight of the nine plots uncovered in the UK since March 2019. “These lone actor plots tended to have the greater chance of success,” the study warns.
If the death toll is relatively low, it’s not for want of trying, as the number of attacks and planned attacks show. Ironically, it may be that the Wuhan Plague put the kybosh on all their would-be jihadin’ ways.
The lockdown prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic may have resulted in a ‘lack of mass public gatherings’ or ‘soft targets’ for Islamist terrorists to target but it says that there were still seven catalogued plots between March this year and June, the cut off point for the study. Two of those were in the UK including the killing of three people in a park in Reading in Berkshire in June.
Make no mistake about the scale of the threat that persists. That “vast majority of peaceful Muslims” pales into insignificance against the tens of thousands of decidedly not-peaceful ones.
Intelligence services in the UK remain focused on the threat posed by Islamist terror and the MI5 watchlist has ballooned to 40,000 individuals that also includes foreign suspects capable of travelling to the UK. There are about 25,000 British-based suspects on the lists and 3,000 under active investigation at any one time.
So, no matter what the media and politicians may tell you – or elect not to tell you – the deadly threat of Islamic terrorism isn’t about to go away in a hurry.
“Covid-19 has not changed this underlying dynamic, as the rate of alleged plots and attacks in Europe has remained steady even during the pandemic. The overall Islamist threat endures.”
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