Terror in Brussels

Europe faced a day of terror on Tuesday. Brussels – in fact all of Belgium – was practically shut as at least seven deadly terrorist attacks ripped through the Brussels airport, metro station and areas close to security institutions. At least 40 were reported killed – with the possibility of more casualties – and more than 200 injured. The attacks were seen as a declaration of war against the city and the army took over the Nato capital. Repercussions were felt around the globe with stocks tumbling and currencies dipping. The reaction of the Belgians and most Europeans was one of shock and helplessness, made more vivid by the image of Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief, breaking down at a news conference with the Jordanian foreign minister. Coming just four days after the arrest in Brussels of the main schemer of the Paris attack, Saleh Abdeslam, the obvious blame would be pointed at his organisation and seen as a blowback of his arrest. Predictably, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. The statement released by the Islamic State said that its fighters opened fire at the airport before several of them detonated their suicide vests. It also claimed an attacker at the metro station was a suicide bomber. Certainly events in the Middle East and the furious wars going on there will also be one of the main factors behind this act of terror. Europe has become the target of terrorism, and within Europe, Belgium has become a major front in the fight against it. There are reports that a suspected suicide bomber at the airport was speaking in Arabic and the Belgians had warned of possible reprisal attacks after Abdeslam was captured.

The Islamic State has a tendency to take credit for most attacks but ultimately it may not matter if the attacks were organised by the Islamic State, its ideological allies or lone wolves. The unique threat of IS is that it appeals to disaffected and alienated Muslims in the West who are more than willing to plan and execute attacks themselves, as happened in San Bernardino in the US. The one thing we can be certain of is that Muslims, both those who have been living in Europe all their lives as well as recent refugees from the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, will bear the brunt of the response. The spate of attacks in Europe also puts the project of European unity at risk. The Schengen pact, allowing visa-free travel throughout the EU, has already been strained and with migrants the likely scapegoats for the attack, many countries may decide to go it alone. The Balkan countries have already sealed their borders to refugees and Italy too has been trying to close its sea route. Those migrants who have already made it to Germany and other Western European countries could very possibly face deportation. Britain is in the midst of a campaign to leave Europe – the ‘Brexit’ – and prominent politicians like London Mayor Boris Johnson are urging a vote to detach the country from Europe in the referendum scheduled for this summer. Far-right parties, whose platform concentrates primarily on targeting immigration, have been gaining strength throughout the continent. The best response to attacks like the one in Brussels would be to repudiate hate of any kind and give a home to those fleeing exactly those actors who have struck Europe. As the series of recent attacks in Turkey shows, no country is safe right now and cooperation, rather than isolation, provides the best path forward. Attacks like the one in Brussels are horrific, but they must force us to work towards building a much more humane world. That would be the only way of salvaging the bloody legacy of this age of terrorism.