This week showcased another alarming incident of Islamists targeting the West. Austrian police arrested two men suspected of plotting terrorist attacks on stadiums, causing Taylor Swift to cancel three concerts. One of them, a 19-year-old, had recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State online.
ISIS is an Islamist extremist organization, similar to Hamas and Al Qaeda, dedicated to the destruction of the West and the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate.
Islamists, to be differentiated from Muslims, believe in the use of violence to wage war on the infidels—the unbelievers— to achieve political ends. They reject pluralism and coexistence in favor of Sharia law.
Pluralistic Muslims have warned the West
In 2017, the UAE’s Foreign Affairs Minister sent this message to the West:
Terrorist goals beyond the Middle East
In the Near East, Islamists have targeted Christians in recent decades, leading to a population decline from between 13-25% in the 1900s, to just around 4.2% in 2020.
Since Hamas’ massacre of Israelis on October 7, the Islamist regime in Iran and its proxies have shown their continued dedication to eliminating the state of Israel. Israel is a target because it is home to Jews and many other religious and ethnic groups fleeing Islamist countries and is a symbol of the West in the region.
The West thought it had dealt a crushing blow to Islamist extremists following Al Qaeda’s 9/11 attack against the United States, yet the attacks in Austria are an alarming wake-up call to how terrorism has resurged across the globe.
Hamas’ 10/7 attacks have spiked Islamist attacks in Europe
Austria’s interior minister said: “The danger from Islamist extremism in Europe has increased significantly following the terrible terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel.” The Taylor Swift concert plot comes after a recent ISIS-K attack on a Moscow concert hall that left 137 people dead.
ISIS and its affiliates have been behind several foiled and successful terrorism plots in 2024. The group came back into public attention in the United States this summer after 8 Tajik Nationals with ties to the group were arrested on U.S. soil.
Global terrorism is on the rise
The Global Terrorism Index 2024 report identified a 22% increase in deaths caused by terrorism to the highest rate since 2017. Meanwhile, past conflict zones have recongregated under Islamist control as the Taliban consolidates power over Afghanistan once again and Iraq tightens penal codes based on Sharia Law.
How to think about rising Islamist terrorism
The crisis in the West is caused by our civilization’s lost roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Our lack of societal consensus regarding our identity and values has opened the door to neo-Marxist and Islamist ideologies that want to destroy the West.
As Christians at the Philos Project, the solution is education and advocacy surrounding these values to reconnect the West with its roots and restore our identity.
Share this post on Instagram
Read more from the Philos Blog
OUR SOURCES:
- https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/14/politics/isis-us-fears-terror-attack/index.html
- https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/taliban-afghanistan
- https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-813359
- https://philosproject.org/christians-are-disappearing-in-the-middle-east/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/08/world/europe/taylor-swift-concert-terror-plot-vienna.html