Islamic terrorism

European Islamic terrorist attacks since 2014…….


Without Islam in Europe, overwhelming majority of these attacks wouldn’t have occurred. Fact.

European Islamist Plots and Attacks Since 2014—and How the
U.S. Can Help Prevent Them

Robin Simcox
No. 3236 | August 1, 2017

Islamist terrorists pose a clear national security threat to Europe. While over a dozen European countries have been targeted, the threat has mainly converged on France, Germany, and the U.K. Terrorists have planned attacks on a wide range of targets and been willing to use a variety of different weapons—no matter how unsophisticated.

 

Over time, plots have increased in frequency. The U.S. can and should help its friends in Europe face these challenges. Yet an unflinchingly robust response to Islamism in Europe clearly must be led from within Europe.

 

The risk to Europe from Islamist terrorism is stark.1

 

In 2017 alone, attacks have taken place in France, the U.K. (on multiple occasions), Italy, and Sweden. Army General Curtis M. Scaparrotti, commander of U.S. European Command, commented in March 2017 that the terrorist threat was “probably higher in Europe than any other
part of the globe, with the exception of the places we’re actually physically fighting [terrorists], like Syria, […] Afghanistan, and Iraq.”2

 

The main source of this threat is from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), which has taken advantage of the refugee crisis in order to smuggle its operatives into Europe. Two such operatives were part of the cell that carried out ISIS’s coordinated attacks in Paris in November 2015, which killed 130 people. However, that is not their only way of carrying out attacks in Europe. ISIS is also increasingly using encrypted messaging apps to guide their recruits through the process of committing an attack. These plots have been described by European officials as being guided by ISIS via “remote control.”3

This paper, in its entirety, can be found at The Heritage Foundation
214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 546-4400 | heritage.org

 

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