The whole Europe, especially France, is under constant threat of terrorism. More than 230 people have been killed in terrorist attacks in France alone since January 2015. The country has been under a continuous state of emergency for a long time.
Last Thursday (April 20), Karim Cheurfi, a 39-year-old French citizen, opened fire killing a policeman at the Champs-Elysées, a symbolic avenue in the French capital, just ahead of the first-round of presidential voting due to be held on April 23. A document found in the attacker's pocket after he was shot showed he supported Islamic State (ISIS). Cheurfi was known to police and judiciary forces and had been convicted for previous gun attacks on law-enforcement officers.
This is the latest of dozens of attack by ISIS-inspired terrorists. The other day a radicalised Muslim stole a truck and mowed down four pedestrians, including an 11-year-old girl, in Stockholm, Sweden.Â
All these attacks in France and other countries are a reminder of the world's vulnerability and the complexity of containing terrorism.
Such terrorists will continue stalking all over the world. But the Champs-Elysées attack just three days before the election is significant in terms of understanding the motive behind the ISIS-sponsored attack. Islamic State is planning something to influence the French election campaign. It is natural to guess that ISIS has become desperate as it is apparently losing grounds after Iraqi forces have been able to crush most of their bases in and around Syria. They need new recruits and they know if the world does not hate Muslims, large-scale recruitment is not possible.
This year's election in France is being viewed by observers as the most unpredictable one in modern history and the latest terrorist attack has made it wildly volatile.Â
As the attacker is affiliated with ISIS, it is clear that their motive was to swing France's election in favour of Marine Le Pen, a candidate in the election. The attack may strengthen Le Pen's favourite campaign theme for a clamp-down on terrorist suspects and for tightening of border controls. ISIS may imagine that Le Pen is the right candidate who could punish suspects or innocents who are basically Muslims. Â ISIS understands that if La Pen becomes President and enacts excessively xenophobic policies her action will generate more recruits for extremist Muslim groups.
Punished and persecuted people are historically the best recruits for any terrorist or revolutionary organisation.
French voters, however, should be intelligent enough to avoid playing into the hands of ISIS, their enemies.
Terrorism cannot be stopped by targeting ISIS alone. Terrorism cannot be defeated by war. It is necessary to pay attention to social issues that deprive a particular class of people who may become instruments of a terrorist organisation. It is a fact that a lot of first and second generation immigrants have not been properly integrated in Europe and elsewhere in the world and many of them are unemployed and discriminated against. Those who are unemployed become mentally weak or ill - the perfect class of people who can be lured for a job like that of a terrorist attack.
Voters around the world are helpless. They don't know how to choose their leaders. They repent after voting for a person or a cause as things after the vote do not appear as they had hoped to see. Many Americans who voted for Donald Trump are not happy with what is happening in US domestic and foreign policies. Many Britons, who opted for Brexit, are now gritting their teeth in frustration. Turkish voters who voted (maybe under duress) "Yes" in the referendum don't know how President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will navigate their country in the coming days.Â
Erdogan won a referendum on April 16 that will allow him power to change the Turkish constitution and give him (as he will surely win in 2019 presidential election) humongous power to rule the nation in a fashion almost akin to that of a Sultan of Ottoman Empire.
People are in delusional madness. Most of them are hungry for nationalist exclusiveness because they are fed up with the present international cooperation that fails to bring home any benefit for them. Terrorist attacks have made them insular in their attitude to foreigners. They don't want to expend their time and resources for others outside of their borders.
There are also voters both in the developed and developing countries who are befooled by their leaders and influenced by events like a referendum or a terrorist attack so that they vote for a leader or a cause only to be played into the hands of the conspirators. They are hapless.
So are leaders who are hungry for power and wealth, who even don't need votes as they are the masters of vote-rigging. They also use terrorism as a tool to colour and oppress any opposition that may stand in their way to rule people on perpetuity basis.
People are dissatisfied with their lives and are willing to believe that a strong or a mad man or a bogus leader will solve their problems. In some instances they are supporting even 'emperors with no clothes'. Democracy has become too complicated for the masses to understand it.
The Nazi Party in Germany used the same measure in 1933. Variations of it have been used in so-called democracies in many countries for the past few generations. Stolen elections are now easier than one would like to imagine.
History is being racked full of men and women who manipulate democracy to be elected, eventually to become despots and lead their countries to ruination. These demonic leaders befool their people with dazzling facades of highways, bridges, buildings, etc., built on loans at exorbitant prices not to be paid during their tenures. The bills, they know, have to be paid by the posterity. They bother least about the future generations who will have to pay back the mountains of debts through their noses.
Democracy (the ballot box) is being used to effectively destroy democracy.
maswood@hotmail.com
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Terrorism: A tool to influence election
Maswood Alam Khan | Published: April 22, 2017 21:06:38 | Updated: October 22, 2017 19:51:50
Terrorism: A tool to influence election
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