There are reports today that three mosques in Belgium have received letters containing threats to kill Moslems and destroy their homes and businesses. The letters are from a group that calls itself the "Christian State". The authorities describe the letters as filled with misspelled words and grammar mistakes.
So is this the beginning of a sectarian terror war in Europe with Belgium as ground zero? I doubt it very much. More likely, these letters have been written by supporters of ISIS or other radical Islamic terror groups in an effort to instill fear into the Belgian Moslem population and to gain new supporters for their cause. Unless and until the forensic scientists of the Belgian police can determine who wrote the letters, we cannot be 100% certain of the author of these letters. Nevertheless, one needs to keep in mind that Belgium has a literacy rate of greater than 99%. In other words, people born in Belgium are essentially guaranteed to be able to write a letter of this sort without misspelling many words and certainly without making all sorts of grammatical mistakes. Those sorts of errors are more likely the result of someone authoring the letters whose native language is something other than French or Flemish (the languages spoken in Belgium.) And if you think about it, what better way does ISIS and the other terror groups have to stoke support than to instill fear among the Moslems in Belgium of an impending attack from the "Christian State."
So far, every news story I have seen about these letters is completely silent on the possibility that the letters were sent by ISIS itself as a ploy. In other words, the media is falling into the trap most likely set for it by ISIS. It seems that in Europe, as in the USA, the possibility that there are Christian terrorists is just too enticing for the media to actually investigate and think rationally about the facts before reporting.
So is this the beginning of a sectarian terror war in Europe with Belgium as ground zero? I doubt it very much. More likely, these letters have been written by supporters of ISIS or other radical Islamic terror groups in an effort to instill fear into the Belgian Moslem population and to gain new supporters for their cause. Unless and until the forensic scientists of the Belgian police can determine who wrote the letters, we cannot be 100% certain of the author of these letters. Nevertheless, one needs to keep in mind that Belgium has a literacy rate of greater than 99%. In other words, people born in Belgium are essentially guaranteed to be able to write a letter of this sort without misspelling many words and certainly without making all sorts of grammatical mistakes. Those sorts of errors are more likely the result of someone authoring the letters whose native language is something other than French or Flemish (the languages spoken in Belgium.) And if you think about it, what better way does ISIS and the other terror groups have to stoke support than to instill fear among the Moslems in Belgium of an impending attack from the "Christian State."
So far, every news story I have seen about these letters is completely silent on the possibility that the letters were sent by ISIS itself as a ploy. In other words, the media is falling into the trap most likely set for it by ISIS. It seems that in Europe, as in the USA, the possibility that there are Christian terrorists is just too enticing for the media to actually investigate and think rationally about the facts before reporting.
No comments:
Post a Comment