Bastille Day celebrations turned into a nightmare when a lorry ploughed into a crowd in Nice, killing at least 84 people in what president Francois Hollande dubbed a “terrorist” attack.
Ghassan Charbel, a columnist with the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat, said what linked the massacre in Nice to the previous terror attacks in France is the apparent goal of severing relations between Muslim-majority countries and the West.
“The terror group ISIL – and before it, Al Qaeda – believe that taking over the Islamic world depends upon severing relations between these countries and the West,” he wrote.
“In their opinion, the West forms a protective umbrella for these regimes with its political, economic, cultural and media presence and its capacity for military intervention when needed.
They believe that revolutionising the Islamic world can only happen under fire, by creating demarcation lines with other religions and civilisations.”
This policy was first manifested by the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington DC.
The aim was to cause a crack in relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia, with the model to be followed later in targeting relations between European and Muslim-majority countries, he observed.
“What is more dangerous is the attempt at severing relations between Arab and Muslim communities and their host countries. We should confess that Al Baghdadi succeeded where bin Laden failed,” he added.
Opening the door of hatred and doubt between these communities and the countries that host them has the effect of turning the members of these communities into booby-traps and doubles their marginalisation, while also handing a golden opportunity to both radical and discriminatory movements.
Charbel concluded that this strategy was working: “After the Brussels attacks, I saw fear in the eyes of the people on the subway every time they saw an Arab carrying a bag.”
Egyptian columnist Emile Amin, writing in the London-based pan-Arab Asharq Al Awsat, said that while France mourns, fanatics are setting up trap after trap for the country. However, he urged the country not to stoop to their level.
In a moment of pressure, Mr Hollande talked about his country being under “the threat of Islamic terrorism” but failed to note the wide-scale condemnation of this heinous crime expressed by millions of Muslims in France and many more around the world.
“President Hollande calls for complete vigilance and an iron will to fight terrorism, and everyone supports him in this context,” he wrote.
“However, there is concern that in the bitterness of the moment of pressure, France would fall into a false comparison between freedom and security. As former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright put it, this same debate cost the Americans a decade and a half of confusion.
“Hollande called for tens of thousands more soldiers to take part in securing the country, and for military reserves to help strengthen France’s security. But in reality, fighting terrorism calls for moves that go beyond harsh reactions, and especially exceptional measures that become a landslide that may breach the constitution and France’s freedom.
“As a result of this, France in particular would lose its greatest historic characteristics: ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’.”
This has been an obvious target for extremist groups. Events such as the one in Nice “will only strengthen the will and determination of Europe’s far-right and its exaggeration in tribal identity, ethnic racism and even superiority”, he added.
The attack in Nice should instead act as a call to unite international efforts to fight terrorism. He called for a summit that will go beyond just words and will produce forward-looking plans that anticipate terrorist attacks so these can be neutralised.
The efforts of individual countries are no longer sufficient to face the worst, which he said is yet to come.
“France and the rest of Europe, along with the Arab world, all face an unprecedented danger that threatens social stability,” he added.
“It is one of those great dangers that French writer Victor Hugo raised – those that carry a kind of beauty by highlighting the brotherly ties between strangers.
“But France needs to watch out for finding needles before they are thrown in the haystacks, and this does not justify burning all haystacks at one time.”
translation@thenational.ae