The Island Editorial

Terror, doves and flowers

11 April 2017

 

The Swedish police have confirmed that the man who carried out a truck attack in Stockholm, the other day, killing four persons, has had links to extremist groups including the ISIS. He went underground after being denied asylum in 2014, police have said. There must be many more brainwashed terrorist cadres in sleeper cells in Stockholm and other parts of Sweden, and the daunting task before the Swedish authorities is to find them out.

People have been laying flowers near the place of Stockholm attack in a show of solidarity. In this country, peace activists used to paint doves on roads following terror strikes which snuffed out many innocent lives. People express their sorrow and protest in different ways. But, tough action against terrorism is necessary if roads are to be made safe for civilians. Terrorists are not so civilized as to get the message of peace concerned people try to convey through flowers and road painting!

Sweden is a land of peace among the top ten happiest countries in the world according to the World Happiness Report rankings. It cherishes human rights. Whoever would have thought there would be terror strikes in a peaceful, tolerant city like Stockholm?

Sweden has, like other developed nations, allowed evil forces to abuse freedom on its soil to further their macabre interests elsewhere, and had zero preparedness for terror strikes. The recent truck attack has come as a rude wake-up call. The time has come for Sweden to crack down on terrorists.

Time was when the developed world thought AIDS was a disease of the poor in faraway Africa. But, today, it hasn’t spared any country. The Global North once had the same attitude towards terrorism, which, it mistakenly believed, would affect only the developing world. They, therefore, chose to handle terrorist outfits and terror fronts operating on their soil with kid gloves.

Ironically, last year’s truck attack in the French city of Nice, where more than 84 persons perished, came to be dubbed the ‘Nice terror strike’ in the international media, on which the negative connotations of the use of ‘Nice’ as an adjective were lost. That carnage was the price France had to pay for being ‘nice’ to terrorists and their fronts.

The developed world, where the ISIS has demonstrated its ability to strike at will, is in the current predicament because power politics has taken precedence over national security. Politicians are the same the world over; they stoop to any level to secure as many votes as possible. Terrorists have invested in various fronts which function as lobbying groups with massive slush funds. They make offers such as campaign funds and block votes which politicians cannot refuse. Thanks to Wikileaks, which disclosed hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables it is now known that in 2009 the then British Foreign Secretary David Miliband rushed here in a bid to stop the Vanni war because he wanted the save the LTTE leaders and secure the support of pro-LTTE voters at home in return.

There is a pressing need for the people of the West to be more politically active and exercise their franchise so that terror fronts which seek and gain favours in return for block votes won’t be able to sway their politicians. The onus is on them to ensure that their governments separate national security from politics.

It is high time the developed nations realised that they are as vulnerable as their poor counterparts to terrorism. They must launch a global campaign to eliminate terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Else, their citizens will have to live in eternal fear of terror strikes just like the people in the developing world. Terrorism cannot be countered with flowers and paint; the scourge has to be removed.