In the aftermath of the World Trade Center attack in New York in 2001, the United States resolved that in order for such an event not to happen again on American soil, the fight must be brought to the countries where the attack originated.
The Afghan war was initiated to root out Al Qaida and kill Osama bin Laden. The US also organized a coalition to invade Iraq. The United States and allies therefore waded into an ongoing 1300-year conflict between the Sunni and the Shiate muslims of Iraq. The Iraq war also resulted in the birth of a militant group more brutal and extreme than the Al Qaida called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS, ISIL or Daesh. This group established a so-called caliphate and also decided like the Al Qaida to carry the fight to America and Europe. Only this time, with much more intensity.
It also became easier because many of the ISIS recruits come from the marginalized Muslim population of Europe like Belgium. This is what we have seen in Paris in November of 2015 and in Brussels this March. Europe is now gripped in a new kind of war that it is not accustomed to fighting. The suicide bomber which is so common in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Israel has now been exported to Europe. And judging from what we are seeing on TV, Europe is finding it difficult to cope with a situation wherein people are so willing to blow themselves up for a cause difficult to comprehend. The sight of heavily armed soldiers patrolling the streets and inspecting ordinary citizens before they can enter public buildings or transport stations is beginning to be the new normal like many developing countries with internal security problems.
There is no longer any place that is absolutely safe anywhere. Anyone can be a victim, whether strolling along a boulevard or dining in a restaurant. As a result, perhaps we will be seeing less of those travel advisories that western countries oftentimes issues. The Paris terrorist attack in November 2015 which killed more than 120 people was the first incident that involved a suicide bomber in Europe. A female participant detonated a bomb inside an apartment instead of giving herself up. In the Brussels attack, three of the 32 confirmed dead were the suicide bombers themselves. Belgium has come under criticism because of the failure of its intelligence services. Officials have difficulty explaining why Abdalsam, one of the Paris bombing participants who was hunted for the last four months was arrested just a block away from where he lives in the Molenbeek district of Brussels.
Belgium has now earned the dubious distinction of being the ground zero of Muslim radicalism in Europe. There is some truth to this. Almost all the major terrorist incidents in Europe could somehow be traced to the Molenbeek district of Brussels. This started with the assassination of the Afghan warlord Ahmad Shah Massoud on Sept. 9, 2001 by Algerian assassins masquerading as TV journalists with Belgian passports.
In per capita terms, Belgium has contributed the most number of Muslim radical fighters in Syria. In 2015, more than 400 Belgian Muslims went to Syria to fight for ISIS. Why has Belgium suddenly become the focal point of muslim militant activity in Europe? There are many explanations to this. First is the system of government that exist in the country. Belgium has six governments. A federal government, a Flemish government for the Flanders region, a government of the French community, a government of the German speaking community, a government for the Walloon region and a government of the Brussels capital region. Brussels alone with one million people has six different police departments and nineteen districts with its own mayors.
On the tactical front, the Belgian intelligence community has had no Arabic speaking personnel and is only now trying to rectify that weakness. There are also about 800 suspected jihadists living all over Belgium with about 450 in Brussels and 85 in Molenbeek alone. Also, about 130 of those who went to Syria to fight are now back in Belgium providing a cadre of trained combat veterans who can be tapped at a moments notice. Belgium in the late 20th century was also one of the centers of illegal arms trade which make it easy for militants to acquire high powered firearms. Although the Molenbeek district with its 100,000 population are not all muslims, almost half are. It also has 22 mosques which does not include prayer rooms and private religious centers. Because of the failure of Belgium to integrate their muslim population, many of them feel alienated and marginalized. Many of the almost 50,000 muslims in the Molenbeek district therefore could provide the mass base support for the radicals.
These are the sympathizers and active supporters. Why else would Abdalsam go back to Molenbeek and hide there for four months and be arrested only a block from his house? Because he felt safe there. The European countries have a lot more work to do to be able to eliminate the many terror cells scattered all over Europe. Even with the outpouring of sympathy for Belgium and France, terror attacks are by no means over. Unfortunately, there will probably more.
There have many good proposals to mitigate Muslim radicalism like programs for social integration and more effective and flexible policing which is absolutely necessary because terror cells operate transnationally with a lot of flexibility in contrast to the oftentimes rigid and very bureaucratic police organizations in many countries throughout Europe that do not even share intelligence information.