Twice a Victim: How Have Attacks Affected Muslims in Europe?

As attacks continue to be linked to Islam, European Muslims share their stories of loss, discrimination and identity.

On March 11, 2004, during the morning rush hour, several bombs ripped through four commuter trains in the Spanish capital, Madrid. The simultaneous, coordinated blasts killed more than 190 people and injured almost 2,000.

The Madrid bombings were the first in a string of violent attacks on European soil in recent years - from London, Paris, Brussels and Nice to Manchester, Barcelona and Berlin.

These attacks were claimed to be carried out in the name of Islam, which has created an association between the Islamic faith and armed violence. As a result, many Muslims in Europe are facing heightened Islamophobia, hatred and ostracism.

Stop! That Plane Is For Non Muslims Only

A British Muslim family which had scheduled a holiday at California's Disneyland were denied entrance into the U.S. after authorities at  London's  Gatwick airport stopped the family of eleven from boarding their flight to Los Angeles.  No reason was given even though they'd received online pre approval from U.S. authorities.  

The case of the family from London who were turned back at the airport has been raised by the British Labour MP Stella Creasy, who believes a lack of information from US authorities is fuelling resentment within British Muslim communities.

“Online and offline discussions reverberate with the growing fear UK Muslims are being ‘trumped’ – that widespread condemnation of Donald Trump’s call for no Muslim to be allowed into America contrasts with what is going on in practice,”Creasy writes in an article for the Guardian. She said she was in contact with at least one other constituent who had had a similar experience.

Mohammad Tariq Mahmood was one of the family members turned away from the flight. He was travelling with his brother and nine of their children. Mahmood told the Guardian that no officials had told them why their entry was barred, but he thinks the reason is “obvious”.

“It’s because of the attacks on America – they think every Muslim poses a threat,” Mahmood said.

He said the children had been counting down the days to the trip for months, and were devastated not to be able to visit their cousins as planned.
He said that the airline told them that they would not be refunded the $13,340 cost of their flights. They were also forced to return everything they bought at the airport’s duty-free shops before being escorted from the airport.

Following the terrorist attack in Paris which was carried out by citizens of France and Belgium and not by terrorists posing as refugees Republican Presidential candidates seized on one particular aspect of  the investigation.  A Syrian I.D. card that was found at the scene of one of sights attacked.  The I.D. in question was supposedly from a Syrian refugee who participated in the attack.  It was a fake.
With all this fear mongering and  over the top racist statements made by conservative American politicians  following the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino California is any wonder this family was denied the right to enter the U.S. simply to  enjoy a family holiday?

Republicans felt compelled  to offer up over the top offensive rhetoric in response.  

Ted Cruz Republican from Texas:



President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s idea that we should bring tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees to America—it is nothing less than lunacy,” Ted Cruz said on Fox News, the day after the attacks on Paris. If there are Syrian Muslims who are really being persecuted, he said, they should be sent to “majority-Muslim countries.” Then he reset his eyebrows, which had been angled in a peak of concern, as if he had something pious to say. And he did: “On the other hand,” he added, “Christians who are being targeted for genocide, for persecution, Christians who are being beheaded or crucified, we should be providing safe haven to them. But President Obama refuses to do that.”


Jeb Bush:
“At a minimum we ought to be bringing in people that have -- orphans or people that clearly aren’t going to be terrorists. Or Christians,” Bush said during a campaign stop South Carolina. “There are no Christian terrorists in the Middle East, they’re persecuted.”

When pressed by ABC News on how he would determine who is a Christian he said, “I mean you can prove you’re a Christian.” adding, "I think you can prove it, if you can’t prove it, you are on the side of caution.”

Mike Huckabee:
"How come they never end up in the neighborhood where the limousine liberal lives?" Huckabee said in a radio interview. "Behind gated communities and with armed security around. Mrs. Clinton, you have suggested we take in 65,00 refugees. How many can we bring to your neighborhood in Chappaqua?"
"Heck, we may take them to the University of Missouri," Huckabee continued. "A lot of the students are so stressed out from feeling unsafe because somebody said a word they didn’t like that they are not using their dorm rooms anymore. Maybe we can put them there."

Marco Rubio Republican from Florida:
“It’s not that we don’t want to,” Rubio said in an interview with ABC. “It’s that we can’t.”

“You can have a thousand people come in and 999 of them are just poor people fleeing oppression and violence,” Rubio said. “But one of them is an Isis fighter – if that’s the case, you have a problem.

“There’s no way to vet that out. There’s no background check system in the world that allows us to find that out because who do you call in Syria to background check them?”

National anthems: beating the drums of war?

We look at the Paris attacks, national anthems and the use of sports to promote war; plus, the battle over Rustavi 2 TV.


When George Orwell wrote in 1945 that sport is "war minus the shooting", it was recognition of the power of sports to arouse nationalistic sentiments.

Orwell would have seen an echo of his words in the spectacle of thousands of football supporters across Europe singing the French national anthem as a show of solidarity for those who had died in the Paris attacks earlier this month.

In times of conflict, when the mainstream news media already tend to pound the drums of war - having sports audiences repeatedly exposed to pro-military messaging - tilts the playing field further still.

The short distance from the pitch to the battlefield is evidenced by the extensive use of sporting events by the Pentagon to rally support for US troops and military action abroad. Back in Europe, how many of those singing the Marseillaise were aware of its bloodthirsty battle cry?

Double standards in the Paris attacks coverage

We examine whether there's a double standard for victims of terrorism; plus, fixers: the unsung heroes of journalism.

As news of the attacks in Paris was breaking, Facebook launched a feature allowing its users to "check-in" and let their family members and friends know they were safe.

It also introduced a feature that allowed users to overlay the colours of the French flag on their profile pictures to express solidarity with the victims of the attacks.

These features prompted many to question a potential double standard: Where were they when dozens were killed in bomb blasts in Beirut a day earlier, or when 149 people lost their lives in Garissa, Kenya back in April?

Critics accused the site of valuing the lives of Western victims more than those in the Middle East and other regions. Meanwhile, journalists covering the story were accused of making unfair accusations, using divisive terminology and xenophobic reactions.

Paris attacks: suspects and 'mastermind' Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud holed up in St-Denis raid

• St-Denis: what we know so far
• Who is Paris attacks ‘mastermind’ Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud?
• Salah Abdeslam and another fugitive ‘barricaded in apartment’
• Paris-bound Air France flights diverted in US after threats
• French police hunt new fugitive thought to be involved in Paris attacks
• Germany-Holland football match called off after terror attack warning

4m ago07:24

Two suspects dead, including a woman, in raid

Associated Press confirms French police saying two suspects are dead, including a woman, during the raid.

Separate reports are saying that the third person who has apparently died was a bystander. This has not been confirmed.

24s ago
07:10

French national police have just put out this reminder that the operation is ongoing:

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3m ago07:07

Le Monde and other French media say they have confirmation from police and judicial sources that three of the people targeted in the police operation are dead, including a woman who blew herself up with an explosive belt.

The Guardian has not yet been able to verify this independently.

I will bring you further information as we check it.

3m ago06:58

St-Denis raid: what we know so far

The police operation in St-Denis is ongoing, but here is what we currently know:

• Heavy shooting, including automatic gunfire, and explosions have been reported in St-Denis, a northern Paris suburb. St-Denis is where the Stade de France, one of the targets of Friday’s attacks, is located, although the current operation is in the centre of the suburb, close to the basilica.
• The targets of the raid are the mastermind of the Paris attacks,Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud; as well as Salah Abdeslam and another suspect thought to be a ninth attacker.
• Two or three men are reported to have barricaded themselves in an apartment, exchanging gunfire with officers. It is not confirmed that these men are the suspects named above.
• Shooting began at 4.30am local time (0330 GMT) and has continued in bursts in the hours since. At least seven explosions have been heard.
• Three police officers have been reported injured in the operation, apparently not seriously. At least one person has reportedly died, but this has not been confirmed.
• Roads have been closed off and the police operation is ongoing, with large numbers of police officers and police vehicles in the area. Military reinforcements have also arrived.
• Residents have been told to stay in their homes and away from windows. Some have been moved to a temporary shelter in the town hall. Transport to St-Denis has been suspended and schools will not open on Wednesday.

4m ago06:46

Three heavy trucks carrying around 100 French troops have arrived in Saint-Denis to secure the perimeter of the operation, as they did outside the Bataclan concert hall on Friday night.

Heavily armed police have taken over the centre of the town.

At least seven explosions have been heard at the scene, but the source of the blasts is unclear.

7m ago06:43

Associated Press has spoken to residents of Saint-Denis who are witnessing the siege.

One resident described intense gunfire and explosions during a police operation near the site of one of last week’s deadly attacks.

Baptiste Marie, a 26-year-old independent journalist who lives near the scene of the standoff, told AP:

It started with an explosion. Then there was second big explosion. Then two more explosions. There was an hour of gunfire.

Resident Amin Guizani, 21, said:

There were grenades. It was going, stopping. Kalashnikovs. Starting again.

06:45

Roads to St Denis blocked

Posted at06:45

Police have blocked roads leading to St Denis, the BBC's Anna Holligan - who is at the scene - says. Our correspondent says they are shining green lasers at people who come too close. At least three large military trucks packed with soldiers have also been spotted.

Fate of Abdelhamid Abaaoud still unclear

Posted at06:42

It is still not clear if Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the 28-year-old suspected mastermind of Friday's attacks, is one of the people thought to be inside the apartment in Saint Denis that police are focused on, AFP reports.

He was previously thought to be in Syria.    

The 27-year-old grew up in Molenbeek, a district of Brussels.

He is an associate of Salah Abdeslam, who is on the run and whose brother Brahim blew himself up in Paris.

Brahim died in the Comptoir Voltaire bar, without killing others. They are all believed to have been recruited by IS.

3m ago06:37

It is now just after 7.30am in Paris, meaning the siege in St-Denis has been going on for over three hours.

There are reports of one person dead, and three police officers injured, though apparently not seriously.

Several explosions have been heard in the last few minutes.

At least three military trucks are now on the scene in the centre of St-Denis.

06:33

Jon Henley

BFMTV and other French media have reported that at least one person has been killed in the police assault. His identity is not yet known.

The inhabitants of St-Denis have been ordered to remain inside their homes, behind locked doors, and to stay away from the windows.

Fareed Zakaria: The Goal Of ISIS Terrorism Is A World Divided (video)

'At home it will mean more domestic laws and tougher police efforts to monitor and arrest people. Given the news about terrorists posing as refugees, it could mean that borders will be closed. The government will spy on communications more intrusively. It will fuel the rise of nationalist politicians everywhere. And the mistrust between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities will grow.
It's worth asking, what does ISIS want? By most accounts, it wants all of this, a world divided between Muslims and non-Muslims. Its propaganda stresses that the West is intractably anti-Muslim. It has always openly tried to draw Western forces into Iraq and Syria hoping to make itself the great army of believers fighting the crusaders.

Imagine if the West could respond to these terror attacks with increased and more effective efforts both at home and abroad, but also with the determination to demonstrate that it would act, but not overreact. That it would reaffirm its basic values and it would strive to restore normalcy in the face of brutality.