 Douglas Murray: Europe Spins Another Islamist Attack The suspect in Berlin’s recent rampage was known to authorities. He slipped through the cracks because leaders minimize the threat of radical Islam.
People stand around flowers, flags, and candles left in front of the Brandenburg Gate after a man drove a vehicle into a crowd, killing one. (via Reuters)
By now it’s all starting to sound like a bad joke. An Islamist terrorist drives a van into a Berlin Pride parade, killing one person and injuring dozens more. And how is it reported? Much of the media went with the usual formulation: that the attacker might as well have been a self-automated vehicle. The white van “didn’t exactly hit the parade,” one typical report went, but as it drove through the parade it “attacked the people who were going away from the parade.” As I have had cause to say too many times, this is something which, from Stockholm to Nice, is best understood as the “naughty van” phenomenon. If a van or car is driven into a crowd by an Islamist, you can swiftly tell who the culprit is because the vehicle will be talked about as though it suddenly took on a life of its own and began a rampage.  This article is part of The Global Picture. Sign up to get everything we publish on international affairs, national security, and the wars reshaping global politics. The reality is even more repetitive. The perpetrator of Saturday’s attack was a 21-year-old called Abdul Ballout. Born in Germany, of Lebanese parentage, last year he reportedly went to Lebanon to try to get to Syria in order to join ISIS. Arrested in Lebanon, he served three months in prison for a range of offenses including incitement to religious and sectarian conflict...
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