That the attacks are jihadist is rarely mentioned, or only briefly. Then everything gets forgotten until the next jihadist attack.
In many American universities, tenured professors have openly supported radical Islam for years, described Hamas as a liberation movement, supported terrorism, shown their hatred of the United States and brainwashed students. Radical imams in many US mosques have incited their followers to hate and even murder Jews, and appear to be trying to legitimize jihad.
Political Islam, support for Islamic terrorism and incitement to jihad -- Islamic holy war -- need to be squarely faced and defeated. It is hoped that the Trump administration will allow no place for jihad in the US or the West.
The jihadist attack in New Orleans on January 1, in which 14 people were murdered by an American convert to Islam, should come as no surprise. In many US universities, professors have openly supported radical Islam for years, described Hamas as a liberation movement, supported terrorism, shown their hatred of the US and brainwashed students. Radical imams in many US mosques have incited their followers to hate and even murder Jews, and appear to be trying to legitimize jihad.
The jihadist attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on January 1, 2025, in which 14 people were murdered by an American who converted to Islam and became an Islamist, should come as no surprise.
This was not the first time that a jihadist in the United States or Europe had attacked in "vehicular jihad." The Islamic State (ISIS) appears to have "encouraged" it in 2010. ISIS even recommended that to cause "maximum carnage," it be used preferably in "pedestrian only" sites.
In the US, jihadist attacks, vehicular and other, include 9/11/2001, the Boston Marathon bombing, the Fort Hood slayings and the New Orleans attack.
In Europe there have been at least 15 vehicular jihad attacks, including two on Christmas markets in Germany; one in Nice, France on July 14, 2016, and more in France, Spain, the UK and Sweden.
There have also been countless non-vehicular jihadist attacks there, including the London Underground attacks of 2005, the slaughter at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the mass-murder at Bataclan Theater, among many others.
In Israel, jihadist attacks, including vehicle-rammings, missiles and drones, bombings, shootings, stabbings and rock-throwing have been a daily way of life for more than 100 years. There were nearly 20,000 terrorist attacks in 2024 alone, according to data from the National Public Diplomacy Directorate in the Prime Minister's Office.
Every time a jihadist attack takes place, the mainstream media often react the same way: the attack is described as "horrific," often presented as "heinous and cowardly." The terrorists are described by their neighbors as nice and quiet people, or suffering from a some mental or drug-related disorder. Commentators describe them as "radicalized," without ever using the word "Islam". That the attacks are jihadist is rarely mentioned, or only briefly. Then everything gets forgotten until the next jihadist attack.
Radical Islam does not "forget". It is on the offensive almost everywhere, every day, every minute. Western authorities and media always seems to shy away from three essentials: honesty (telling the public all the facts), prevention, and the need for harsh measures.
In terms of prevention, the Biden administration, since January 2021, has released 10.8 million possibly unvetted illegal immigrants into the United States, including at least 1.7 million "gotaways" about whom we know -- plus others about whom we do not know. A House Judiciary Committee report from August 2024, states that 375 illegal aliens on the U.S. government's terrorist watch list were apprehended at the border, and several released into the country.
The report also notes that "The terrorist threat to the homeland has skyrocketed". The "transnational criminal organization" Tren de Aragua, for instance, which originated in the prisons of Venezuela, has so far set up bases in at least 18 states, and is considered "a major player in the criminal underworld".
For the Biden administration, the fight against terrorism seems never to have been a priority. The administration has always had targets other than terrorists, such as Roman Catholics who attend Latin Mass; parents who protest men in women's locker rooms; demonstrators who entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021 while police held the doors open for them, and "white supremacists," whom President Joe Biden called the "most dangerous terrorist threat" to the nation.
On August 26, 2022, in Bethesda, Maryland, Biden designated his main enemy, the "MAGA Republicans" as "a threat to our very democracy" and as dangerous people resorting to "political violence", while neglecting even to mention the Black Lives Matter "Summer of Love" in 2020, which destroyed at least $2 billion of property and killed several people (for instance here, here and here).
Just a few weeks ago, December 12, 2024, after months of protests that incited hatred of Israel and Jews -- in major American cities and on university campuses, where Jewish students and professors were threatened and sometimes assaulted (such as here, here and here) -- the Biden administration put in place a National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Hate, and reported that "threats against American Muslim and Arab communities have spiked" and that "Muslim and Arab students, faculty, and staff, have been subject to violence, discrimination, hate, harassment, bullying, and online targeting."
In many American universities, tenured professors have openly supported radical Islam for years, described Hamas as a liberation movement, supported terrorism, shown their hatred of the United States and brainwashed students. Radical imams in many US mosques have incited their followers to hate and even murder Jews (here, here and here), and appear to be trying to legitimize jihad.
Masjid Bilal, the mosque frequented by New Orleans terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar, issued a statement on January 1 urging worshipers not to talk to police and to direct whoever might ask questions to the Islamic Society of Greater Houston and to the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization whose leaders will not condemn Islamic terrorism, and which the United Arab Emirates has designated a terrorist organization.
Despite what CAIR is, the Biden administration has consulted it several times to define its positions on anti-Semitism.
It is fortunate that jihadist terrorist attacks have not been more frequent in the United States, where the situation is not nearly as deadly as in Western Europe.
Journalist Melanie Philips notes that myopia about the topic of jihadist attacks is widespread and "derives from a refusal by the Western establishment to acknowledge that Islamic radicalism is rooted in Islamic theology." Too many members of Western elites, she adds, "parrot the claim that Islam is a 'religion of peace'"; fail to mention that the history of Islam "identifies it as a religion of war and conquest", and that "the faithful who interpret these words literally regard it as a religious duty to conquer and Islamize the non-Islamic or not-Islamic-enough world".
The results have been visibly gruesome
Political Islam, support for Islamic terrorism and incitement to jihad -- Islamic holy war -- need to be squarely faced and defeated.
It is hoped that the Trump administration will allow no place for jihad in the US or the West.
For this article in pdf with appendices providing further explanations, please click here:
Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
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