Myth of "Islamic terrorism" shouldn't form in public consciousness

The world has been shocked by another monstrous act of terrorism: on Thursday evening, on the promenade of the French city of Nice during the Bastille Day celebrations a truck drove at high speed into a crowd that had gathered to watch fireworks. It managed to drive about two kilometers, resulting in the deaths of 84 people, more than ten of whom were children. "This is an attack whose terrorist nature cannot be denied," French President Francois Hollande said in a message to the nation, adding that France intends to increase the intensity of attacks on "Islamists" in Iraq and Syria after the country once again victim of an attack probably committed by "Islamic terrorists".

It is possible to agree with the French President in everything except the epithet "Islamic", referring to terrorism. It can be clearly said that international terrorism threatens the entire world, primarily Islamic countries. It has been known for a long time that the ideology of terrorism only hides behind the banner of Islam.

Basically, everything that is happening in Europe is a response to the actions of Western countries in the Middle East. We are talking about the beginning of wars and local conflicts in the region and about the financing of terrorist groups for the sake of personal political and economic interests in the fight for cheap energy resources. The executions of Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein, the destruction of centuries-old traditions – all of this was done by civilized democratic countries, simultaneously forming new political trends of "true defenders of pure Islam". And these very trends became a threat to the whole of civilization and, above all, to the fundamental foundations of Islam.

Russian representatives are talking about the need to unite in the face of terrorism at all levels and all international platforms, but Western countries constantly declare that Russia is enemy number one.

Yesterday, in an appeal to Francois Hollande and the French nation, Vladimir Putin once again stressed that we can defeat terrorism only through joint efforts.

Will Europe pay attention to this? How many times has Moscow sent lists of terrorists to its colleagues, how many times has it urged to learn from Russian experience in the fight against this evil? It's hard to learn from others' mistakes.

Recall that a case similar to what happened yesterday in Nice happened a little over a year ago in Baku, when a bus drove into a group of athletes who had arrived for the first European Games. At the time there was talk about an accident, but a video of the incident with the bus filmed by eyewitnesses indicates that the driver had no problems maneuvering. He did not slow down at the corner and almost crushed people standing on the sidewalk.

The President of the National Strategy Institute, Mikhail Remizov, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, stated that "Europeans must strengthen the work of the security services and security measures, as well as objectively monitor extremist communities." "Terrorist manifestations are the tip of the iceberg, while all the prerequisites – recruiting, propaganda – occur in communities and networks, which are often not involved in this activity directly. In other words, it is necessary to pay more attention, and tolerance for the types of organizations and communities that are spreading a similar ideology is unacceptable," the expert thinks.

Speaking about Russia's positive experience in the fight against the terrorist underground, he noted that it can easily be used in Europe. "This experience is based on infiltration and requires rather high qualifications and a lot of time. Overall, this experience is less effective in cases when acts of terrorism are carried out by individuals or microgroups that are not a part of the "professional" terrorist underground, so to speak. Because in this case infiltration methods are much less effective. It is one thing when there is a limited number of "professional" terrorist organizations, which can be monitored by infiltrated agents. It is a more or less classic situation, which the intelligence services have already known for decades. It is another thing when there is a large number of individuals or small groups, very small, about which the special services learn only after an attack has already happened. Objectively it is much harder to monitor and prevent terrorism of such an individual nature," he explained.

But those are tactical steps, so to speak. As for strategic steps, it is obvious that it is impossible to turn the fight against terrorism into religious wars. We can fight this evil only if we learn to negotiate with each other and not interfere in the internal affairs of "unwanted" states; we should not start a conflict between the West and the East, the entire world should unite against the terrorist movement.