The West was terrified by the horrific massacre at the French weekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. But it should not have been surprised. This was not an attack by a mentally deranged, lone-wolf gunman. This was not an “un-Islamic” attack by a bunch of thugs — the perpetrators could be heard shouting that they were avenging the prophet Muhammad. Nor was it spontaneous.
If there is a lesson to be drawn from such a grisly episode, it is that what we believe about Islam truly doesn’t matter. This type of violence, jihad, is what they, the Islamists, believe. [The Sunday Times (£)] Read more
