IT HAS become a heartbreaking routine. This week Barcelona has seen the outpourings of solidarity and defiance in the aftermath of terrorism that have acquired a grim familiarity for Europeans. Like their peers in London, Paris and elsewhere, the jihadists who caused carnage on August 17th were attacking Europe’s very way of life, one of freedom, tolerance, openness and hedonism. They slaughtered 15 people and injured some 130 from more than 30 countries, most of them on Barcelona’s great boulevard, the Ramblas.
Many Spaniards had hoped to be spared. They suffered the murder of 192 people in the jihadist bombing of four commuter trains in Madrid in 2004. But of late Spain has played only a minor role in military operations in the Middle East and north Africa. Its security services are effective, honed by long experience against the Basque terrorists of ETA. The country’s Muslim population is proportionately smaller than that of...Continue reading
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