Murderous Rampages on "Our Free Way of Life"
"With the apparent attack on the Christmas market in Berlin, our worst fears have come true."
"Now the security concepts at all the Christmas markets in Germany have to be examined -- including the question of whether they can still take place at all."
Stephan Mayer, Christian Social Union, Bavaria
"Exercise caution at holiday festivals, events, and outdoor markets."
"[Credible information has surfaced that ISIL, al-Qaeeda] and their affiliates continue to plan terrorist attacks in Europe, with a focus on the upcoming holiday season and associated events."
U.S. State Department alert, November 21
"We were enjoying the Christmas lights and mulled wine. We were ready to get up when we heard a loud bang. To our left we saw Christmas lights torn down and the top of an articulated lorry crashing through the stalls and through people."
"We wanted to get out as soon as possible."
Emma Rushton, tourist, Berlin
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| Policemen stand near the site where a truck speeded into a christmas market in Berlin, on December 19, 2016 killing nine persons and injuring at least 50 people. / AFP / John MACDOUGALL |
"I know that it would be particularly hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that a person committed this act who asked for protection and asylum in Germany. This would be particularly sickening for the many, many Germans who work to help refugees every day and for the many people who really need our help and are making an effort to integrate in our country."The Breitscheidplatz market holds a huge appeal to Christmas shoppers in Berlin, as a valued Christmas ritual to look about at the various stalls and take advantage of impulse buying as gifts for family and friends. And who could take seriously the warnings that at Christmas time, the time of universal peace and good tidings one must take especial care to avoid mingling in large crowds whose presence might conceivably invite a terrorist attack? People are understandably loathe to give up longstanding traditions that hold great sentimental value to them.
"Twelve people who were still among us yesterday, who were looking forward to Christmas, who had plans for the holidays, aren't among us anymore. A gruesome and ultimately incomprehensible act has robbed them of their lives."
"[But this attack cannot change the German way of life]."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Aside from which, this is their country, their own place of serenity and refuge where a wealthy nation can take pride in the living conditions offered to hard-working, loyal subjects of a government priding itself on its humanitarian outlook on life, unafraid to open its borders to others seeking haven from life's more unfortunate tendencies to violence and destruction, common in other parts of the world where populations are oppressed and degraded, and economic opportunities for advancement are absent.
People believing in equality and in the concept of multiculturalism and viewing other cultures and religions as having equal value to their own, pride themselves on their humanity. This describes much of Western Europe, now grappling with the growing threat of Islamist imperialism and violent jihad reaching for the jugular of Christianity and its open generosity. Where indigenous citizens of the great cities of Europe wonder what has happened to their culture, their values, their security.
Suffering under the threat of violence, and from that violence as it unfolds.
Paris knows intimately how compromised life for the French has become. England as well, though both will deny they have any problems that patience and goodwill cannot solve. Belgium can testify how well inclusive welcome has worked for it. And Germany's police forces, grappling with a growing wave of crime and assaults complain that German politicians have sacrificed Germany for an illusion, that they cannot, in the tide of welcome of millions of Muslim immigrants, refugees and haven-seekers, uphold the security they are entrusted with.
Poland, whose Eastern European nation peers have, like it, refused the EU-apportioned ingress of refugees, finds itself embroiled by mischance in this vehicular homicide attack driven by an Islamist who murdered a Polish truck driver to commandeer a Polish transport truck for use as a mass murder weapon. It worked wonderfully well in Nice where 85 were left dead, while a more modest dozen were mown down in Berlin, a death count that may rise if any of the 56 injured succumb to their wounds.
Throughout Europe, and in North America, crowded places of worship and celebration for Christmas and New Year's are being re-engineered in their social-gathering components of carefree joy in the season. They all wish to avoid the kind of panic and horror that motorized mass murder provokes with its death and injury toll and above all, the constraining of societies' day-to-day normalcy, now in obvious jeopardy in the crosshairs of Islamist jihadists who see no reason why non-Muslims should enjoy life for any reason.
"I heard the truck crashing against the first stall."
"It came fast, too fast to be driving off the road accidentally."
"It has swept me and ran over both of my legs."
Inaki Ellakuria, 21, Spanish student tourist tweets, Berlin, 19 December 2016
Labels: Crime, Germany, Haven, Immigration, Islamism, Jihad, Refugees, Terrorism
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, December 21, 2016
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