As the news of the Brussels attacks rang throughout the world, I found myself wondering how long it would take for the journalists and politicians to blame the attack on the West, then attempt to reassure us that most Muslims are moderate/peaceful (or the attacks altogether have nothing to do with Islam) and finally voice their concern that there will be a backlash against Muslims.
Blame the West
Turns out, not that long. First we had Jan Jambon, the Belgian Interior Minister, who made this lovely comparison and societal critique:
“We’re talking about third- and fourth-generation [immigrants]; these youngsters are born in Belgium, even their fathers and mothers are born in Belgium, a nd still they are open for these kind of messages. This is not normal – in the U.S., the second generation was the President; here, the fourth generation is an IS fighter – so that is really something we have to work on.”
If you don’t know who he means by “we’, he means every Belgian, except for the third or fourth generation immigrants. Because, obviously, the responsibility to prevent radicalization is on the natives.
No Islam to see here
The second part of the usual process of reactions has not come to pass, as ISIS has stepped in and taken responsibility. This makes it easy, as most Muslims are not card-carrying members of ISIS and therefore we are already assured that this is the minority. Furthermore, as everyone politician and member of the media class has stated, ISIS has nothing to do with Islam.
Muslims fear backlash
And finally, we have the International Business Times, discussing the fear that Muslim Europeans hold, due to the never seen, but often hypothesized Muslim backlash. He even manages to subtlety slip in the blame for the attacks at the feet of far-right wing parties:
“The attacks today come as far-right nationalist parties across Europe have been gaining support by raising alarm over Europe’s porous borders and purported rising extremism among its Muslim communities”
What next?
So now that the usual process is complete, what will happen next. Well, simply put, after an outpouring of faux grief, usually in the form of an ineffectual hash tag or Facebook profile change, we will forget about radical Islam’s latest spasm of violence, and eventually come to believe that terrorism is inevitable and not the result of naive and destructive policies.