Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Europe’s cowardly response to terror

A memorial at the site of the Vienna terror attack (photo: Getty)

It says much about the endemic moral cowardice of Europe that Emmanuel Macron is being hailed as the saviour of the continent. For what? For having the audacity to utter a single word: ‘Islamism’. In identifying the ideology behind the wave of brutal terrorism that has swept Europe this century, Macron has also shown more honesty than his predecessors in the Élysée. He is to be commended, too, for taking the Financial Times to task in their shameful attempt this week to traduce him and his nation.

Now he has an ally in Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz after Monday evening’s attack in Vienna that left four dead. Kurz, who says he has spoken to Macron about possible initiatives to tackle the Islamic extremists, told Germany’s Die Welt newspaper: ‘I hope we will see an end to this misunderstood tolerance and that all countries in Europe will finally realise how dangerous the ideology of political Islam is for our freedom and the European way of life.’

It will be an uphill task. Boris Johnson, for example, while declaring he stood ‘united’ with the Austrian people, couldn’t summon up the courage to name their common enemy.

Meanwhile in France there is a small but growing number of intellectuals who are wondering if the country’s rich history of religious satire might have run its course. Anything for a quiet life.

Islamists will be delighted to hear such weasel words. Delighted, but not surprised, for they are skilled and experienced in the art of guerrilla warfare.

If I may digress for a moment. One of my heroes as a lad was ‘Mad Mike’ Calvert, one of the Britain’s finest irregular soldiers of the second world war. He made his name in the Burmese jungle with the Chindits, a guerrilla unit that hunted the Japanese behind their own lines.

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Gavin Mortimer
Written by
Gavin Mortimer

Gavin Mortimer is a British author who lives in Burgundy after many years in Paris. He writes about French politics, terrorism and sport.

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