Three major jihadi terror attacks in Britain in last three months causing big loss to life and limb to Britons and before that in France with Germany not excluded, the European countries including America now must realise that they made major mistake in Arming, training and funding Islamic Jihadis with the sole aim of defeating Russia and then leaving these jihadis on their own fate after the aim of defeating Russia was achieved. This menace is unlikely to die down in the near future. It is time free democratic countries world over give this problem a cool thought and come up with a out of box solutions.
Most of the jihadi attacks in western countries are Lone Wolf Attacks. A Lone Wolf jihadi could be outwardly a happily married chap minding his job and business hence very difficult for intelligence agencies to identify.
Saturday the 4th June in the evening when people of London were celebrating their well deserved week end, three jihadis drove their van on the pavement of London Bridge trampling anybody and everybody who was walking on that pavement. In the bargain they killed seven innocent people. After their van stalled these jihadis attacked various pubs in the vicinity with knives injuring 50 people, some of them seriously. This carnage only stopped when all three were killed by the Police. It has now being confirmed that the ring leader Jihadi of this group was a Pakistani origin person who had migrated to England. He was also shouting “This is for Allah”. Another jihadi was a Moroccan. This incident happened just a week after a Jihadi blew himself up in Manchester Town of England killing 20 innocent people and injuring many. Before this incident, similar incident of trampling walkers on London Bridge happened three months back. ISIS has taken responsibility of these Jihadi attacks.
Surely no country will like that these migrants first come to the Western Countries in search of better job opportunities and better lives. Having got all this, including citizenship of that country, if these people get radicalised and start killing innocent people sooner than later in all these countries hatred against these migrants will develop. Already wall papers and writing on the walls are surfacing in Britain asking these migrants to go back to their country. Same had happened in France after jihadi attacks there.
Taking advantage of this jihadi attack in Britain President Trump of America has again demanded that there should be immigration ban in America for people coming from Muslim countries. It is worth remembering that President Trump had earlier also decreed a ban on Muslim immigration which was stuck down by American courts.
A new threat which is now developing is that of Lone Wolf Jihad in Western Countries. It is common knowledge that unlike a jihadi who belongs to an organisation and acts on the ideology and orders of head of that organisation and hence can be kept under watch and even traced by the intelligence agencies, it is very difficult to trace out and keep watch on a Lone Wolf Jihadi.
This concept of Lone Wolf Jihad has been propagated by the ISIS. By the use of Social media and other mass communication means they reach Muslim youth world over.
Most of the jihadi attacks in western countries are Lone Wolf Attacks. A Lone Wolf jihadi could be outwardly a happily married chap minding his job and business hence very difficult for intelligence agencies to identify. One fine morning he picks up a weapon and a vehicle and carries out jihad, killings lot of innocent persons. Worst is when he does not use fire arm, as the three jihadis did on London Bridge, but use knives.
This concept of Lone Wolf Jihad has been propagated by the ISIS. By the use of Social media and other mass communication means they reach Muslim youth world over. Gradually they brainwash these youth to their ideology and encourage these youth to carry out acts of terror in the name of Jihad. Most of the times the youths are left to devise their own means of attack. Financial help is also very limited.
ISIS have no qualms in letting down their own community, their main aim being that Muslims should be hated world over so that they migrate back to their original ghettos while ISIS shouts from roof tops to the Muslims that Islam is in Danger. What is really surprising is that the educated migrants in Western Countries are succumbing to this ISIS propaganda. ISIS which is in last legs in Iraq and Syria is further going to propagate this Lone Wolf ideology because in this they have no physical responsibility of the radicalised jihadi. That Lone Wolf does himself. ISIS only has to do propaganda.
Worst affected in this Lone Wolf Jihad are the democratic countries. In these countries people enjoy their fundamental rights and privacy as a result it is very difficult to keep trace on people with jihadi mind set. In these countries the radicalised youth even if known cannot be taken into protective custody for questioning. Intelligence agencies cannot predict a strike or forewarn a target area. More often than not instead of pro-acting security agencies will always be reacting to an incident. So what is the answer?
Till date what exactly constitutes terror has not been specifically defined in UN. This must be speedily addressed to by the comity of nations.
Answer does not lie in America and other Western Countries stopping immigration of Muslims. It is true that ISIS is trying to infiltrate radicalised Muslim youths also in the garb of migrants but then this should be checked at the entry point with through screening. Stopping the migration will give a handle to ISIS and other radical Muslim organisations to further radicalise the youths by saying Islam is in danger. It is also necessary that democratic countries conduct a media campaign to educate their people on the issue and bring in more awareness to the citizens.
Most important the member of the community for his or her sake must be encouraged in reporting unusual behaviour of any community member quietly. Then this member must be watched discreetly by the police organisation.
Democratic countries must also help each other by sharing as much information as possible. Terror laws in democratic countries must also be made very strict. Provisions must exist of taking a radicalised person in protective custody for interrogation. Till date what exactly constitutes terror has not been specifically defined in UN. This must be speedily addressed to by the comity of nations.
Finally any country which is instrumental in propagating terror must be proceeded against by the comity of Nations without delay. Also no country big or small should enjoy veto power in matters relating to terror.
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Excellent write up on the emerging trends of terrorism. The author is the first one to recognise this lone wolf trend, even before it came to be known by this name. The lone wolf inflicts disproportionate damage upon his target group, which we need to seriously counter. While mass screening of suspected segment will alienate the people, there is a need for ‘social shadowing’, of those who are likely to turn as lone wolf. This is by surreptitiously monitoring their WhatsApp, Facebook and other communications, for possible indoctrination, even at the cost of privacy intrusion. The author seem to be the only lone thinker, on this subject matter which calls for concern from everybody.
I beg to disagree with you Brigadier. None of the attacks are lone wolf attacks. They are well planned with logistical support from ‘sympathizers’ against whom the authorities are unable to find a link or evidence. The modules work independent of one another and hence busting the module which carries out the attack does not help investigators detect the module behind the logistics. If this mistake is repeated by governments and agencies, labelling each terror incident as lone wolf, they are deluding themselves.