HOW many more terrorist outrages are the governments of Europe (and elsewhere) going to tolerate before actually doing something to protect not only their populations but the very important tourist trade and its spin-offs too (“Barcelona terror attack kills 13 at tourist spot”, The Herald, August 18)? All we ever hear is that there is no way to foil these attacks. That may be partially true, but all European governments must band together and stop anyone who has gone to fight in the Middle East from returning. The Schengen free borders fiasco has to be stopped too.
This must go some way to preventing the problem. The most damaging aspect to the human rights of ordinary European citizens has been the Human Rights Act. It has thrown up so many exploitable anomalies and given succour to extreme fringe groups whilst denying justice to the mainstream. This has to change too.
The reason President Trump was elected was because ordinary American voters saw hope in his rhetoric, not political correctness. The UK saw the light too and voted for Brexit to take back control. Now it is the European Union's policies in the spotlight. Can it change to please the majority of its population or will it be the next edifice to fall?
Dr Gerald Edwards,
Broom Road, Glasgow.
AS another European city reels from an Islamist attack on the innocent, the need for clear moral guidance and unequivocal condemnation from Muslim clerics becomes more urgent.
The answer to such atrocities lies in targeting the root cause: the fanatical distortion of Islam which produces a death cult needing only the internet, a credit card and a driver’s licence.
Frontline counter-terrorist police are stretched thin, intelligence agencies can only do so much, while deradicalisation programs led or sponsored by governments are waste of time.
It’s not why clerics – Muslim or Christian – give their lives to God but needs must and only my brother pastors in Islam can provide a pro-active active bulwark against radicalisation.
Europe’s Muslim communities need an over-arching body that can speak authentically to the young and female as well to the old and male, and confront Islam’s heretical murderers.
Rev Dr John Cameron,
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
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