Another and Another

Another Islamic terrorist drives another large truck into another crowd of innocents celebrating still another festive occasion. In this case, the location was Berlin, Germany and the celebration was the most important Christian Holiday on the calendar—Christmas.

In this case, 12 are dead, dozens are injured, and those who purport to champion flow of immigrants from countries whose religious culture is antithetical to Western values look the other way. The irony is that Germany was the strongest proponent of the unrestricted flow of Middle Eastern immigrants. It appears that Angela Merkel and her followers have now created a nightmare scenario for the citizens of Germany. Crime is up, demands on the German social welfare system are skyrocketing, sexual attacks against women are on the increase, and, of course ... the terror attacks.

Philip Maugham, a leftist who was very much in favor of Germany's original position on the Syrian immigrant flows, writes: "I felt a sickening panic in the aftermath of the attack, not so much because of my proximity to such a violent and upsetting loss of life, but because it meant accepting I’d been wrong."

At least Mr. Maugham had the character to admit his error. Scott Lehigh of the left-leaning Boston Globe writes:

Germans were obviously feeling that same anxiety — even before Monday’s truck attack left at least nine dead at a Christmas fair in Berlin. While we were in Central Europe, news broke that a 12-year-old boy who held dual German and Iraqi citizenship had twice tried to detonate a nail bomb at a Christmas fair in Ludwigshafen, a city near Heidelberg, in southwestern Germany.

A 12-year-old, one cab driver exclaimed in near-disbelief. Twelve! There was now a deep sense of fear and uncertainty in his country, he said. Germany had taken in too many refugees, and though he didn’t doubt most were good people, there were certain to be some bad apples among them. There was just no way of knowing who. And we should know that the fear was much more pronounced in Europe than in far-away America, he added.

In the United States, Donald Trump continues to be demonized by the Left because he recognizes that unvetted immigrant flows from countries with strong Islamist presence is a clear and present danger to any country that allows them. Germany just learned that tragic lesson, once again. But how exactly, do you vet a 12-year old? The answer, of course, is you can't.

We cannot stop Islamic terror, only the Muslim world can do that. Western leader must demand that the Muslim world initiate a reformation. Until it does, a small but non-trivial percentage of its adherents represent a clear and present danger to Western democracies. And if Islam cannot reform and eliminate the cancer in its midst, then innocent Muslims from middle eastern countries must suffer the indignity of restricted immigration flows. It's not fair, but neither are 12 dead on a shopping street in Berlin, or 100 dead in a concert hall in Paris, or 50 dead in a nightclub in Orlando.

And for those who subscribe to the fantasy that restricting Muslim immigration will somehow create more Islamists, I can only say this: If the belief system among "moderate" Muslims is so fragile that its adherents will joint a radical Islamist group the slightest provocation (in this case, an inability to freely emigrate to the West), then that belief system is suspect.

It is our right to grant the privilege of immigration only to those that we are fairly certain mean us no harm, and as important, those who are willing to adapt to the ways of our culture of freedom. Sure, we're also a culture that celebrates religious tolerance, but that doesn't mean we have to tolerate religious fanatics who do not tolerate us and want to do us harm. Making things even more complex, it appears that many Muslim immigrants who appear to be 'safe,' or the children of those immigrants who appear to be safe, become radicalized over time. The leftist narrative would have us believe that it's all our fault. But reality tells a far different story.