Today’s attack was the 7th Islamist terrorist atrocity in France since January 2015. Two hundred and thirty six people have been killed by Islamist terrorism there in the last 18 months. This attack might only have killed one innocent person but it was a particularly brutal event: an 84-year-old priest had his throat slit while celebrating Mass. It was an attack that was designed to shock and to divide, to make it impossible to ignore the religious element of this act of terrorism.
Douglas Murray and Haras Rafiq discuss Europe’s summer of terror:
The two terrorists were shot dead by police before they could kill their other hostages, two nuns and several members of the congregation. But the news that one of the attackers was known to the authorities, and had attempted to go to Syria last year will raise questions about why the French security services did not have him under closer surveillance.
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