Western countries face unstable security

Whether the attacks were carried out in retaliation for anti-terror campaigns or as an expression of Islamic extremism, security in the West is likely to see growing challenges in the years to come.

While the public was still in shock from the street killing of a soldier in London, another soldier was stabbed while on duty in a Paris suburb. Worthy of note is that these attacks happened in crowded areas and the culprits did not hide themselves but stayed at the scene and even asked passersby to photograph and film them.

Footage shows one of the two attackers in London speaking into the camera while holding a blood-stained knife. His words: “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you.” The man said the reason for killing the soldier was to avenge the British government’s involvement in the war against Islamists. The man called on the British people to remove their government.

The attack is obviously not a typical murder case. Although no connections between the attacks in London and Paris have been found, their motives seem similar - avenging anti-terror campaigns by the UK and France.

The UK has been part of the US-led coalition fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq, while France has conducted a number of anti-terror campaigns in North Africa and has intervened militarily in Mali. In other words, the attacks could be a declaration of war on Western armies by Islamists in response to anti-terror operations elsewhere.

While investigations are underway, security officials in the UK and France have to deal with strong anti-Islam hostility that has been sparked by the incidents.

The attacks were apparently carried out by independent terrorists known as lone wolves, which is worrisome because it’s so difficult to prevent.

According to some anti-terror analysts, the volume of extremist articles on the Internet is on the rise, making it easier to disseminate Islamic extremist dogma and encourage lone wolves. Police and intelligence agencies in France, the UK and the US don’t have sufficient resources to identify and monitor all potential lone wolves.

The attacks in London and Paris raise the alarming specter of terrorists and extremists using the Internet to wage a holy war. The Military Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands has reported several websites that encourage individual extremist acts like the attacks in London and Paris.

British police have closed more than 2,000 such websites since 2010. The UK has posted on the Internet messages by survivors of terror attacks calling for efforts to suppress holy war rhetoric and extremist ideologies.

British law is being used to prevent those likely to become extremists from contacting terrorist groups. But, efforts to oppose extremist movements in Islamic communities have stalled due to internal differences in Western governments over the freedom of speech.

Although the motives of the attacks in the UK and France remain unclear, analysts say if they were connected to terrorism, this would be a nightmare for security in Western countries. It seems that those behind the attacks may have been trying to spread extremism and cause political and social instability through small-scale surprise attacks using simple weapons.

Still struggling with a severe public debt crisis, Europe will almost certainly face increasing instability in the next few years.