Bastille Day Terrorist Truck Attack

A large truck has ploughed into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the southern French city of Nice leaving at least 80 dead.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/15/bastille-day-truck-attack-what-we-know-so-far?CMP=fb_gu

Horrible. No words, just sadness.

I sat up until 4am watching the news. Absolutely numb - so many families there with children. I also filed a formal complaint with IPSO against the Daily Mail for photos they published while it was still ongoing.

Well done.

Just heard that the first night of the Proms opened with the Marseillaise. I think that's a genuine tribute (as opposed to political etc).

This is so heartbreaking. To ruin the lives of so many for an ideal based on violence. It is about time these bullies were dealt with!

So awful. Devastating. I guess it raises, yet again, all sorts of questions about Islam and devout followers of that faith (although I know the terror in Nice was not directly ISIS inspired, it certainly is derived from that camp). I believe in freedom in all areas, as far as possible. But that brings responsibility to others which was not demonstrated in this act. From one who cares about all, Muslims included, I'm now beginning to question my beliefs. What do you think now? Here is one person's view which I thought was extreme at first but now I find myself agreeing with a lot of his sentiments. http://rodfleming.com/muslim-terror-attack-nice/

I followed the above link anticipating a considered article reflecting on how we could go forward, only to discover a xenophobic bigoted ranting, factually incorrect and what basically amounts to hate speech which has no place even been linked to a respectable site. Hitler must have sounded much like this.

I hope you will read through this again Kit and consider if this publicising this is really helping the situation or inflaming it? Please just stop to think how you would feel in a few years time if other Europeans decide that us Brits are responsible for the economic downfall of Europe and hunt us down, dispossess us, mark us out.

I don't think we should let our total shock, horror and sadness at the actions of one disturbed madman tarnish the reputations of the many devout and peaceful followers of Islam who are equally horrified - and have been killed, injured and bereaved aswell.

All this is a reminder of the IRA attacks - would we have suggested that all Irishmen - all Catholics - all protestants were to be branded and deported, or is this because those making these accusations are a different colour and race to the majority of Muslims?

The author of the item linked to only stops short of decreeing that all Muslims should wear a star on their shirt. Shame on them!

I believe you have to be brave enough to look at both sides, Sand, whether it it turns your stomach or not. Ignoring a rant doesn't make it go away. I think the writer is a little insane on this topic but quite angry at the atrocity; he has made some ill considered remarks, that much is true, but some of these thoughts will be at the forefront of some people's minds right now. Turning your face away from warlike provocations is not always the way to deal with aggressive factions.

No one is turning their face away - we no longer enjoy that luxury, we are all angry and heartbroken at the atrocity, but it's not helpful to employ nazi-type rhetoric to malign millions of peaceful Muslims who don't want this either. There is only one side we should be considering - the side of the innocent, and that includes the millions of muslims who are also innocent and whose faith is being tarnished and who are being villified by the likes of the author of the post. The following are some of the fallacious and inflammatory comments from the post:

"we all have a major problem with Islam. It is not a race, it is a hellish ideology"

"Most Muslims, as shown in survey after survey, support the aims of the terrorists"

"We should strip them of their assets and tell them that our State social security systems are no longer available to them. No health care. No housing. No unemployment benefit"

"Every single mosque that exists in Europe has to be levelled"

"The repetition of any phrase from the Islamic texts — even the seemingly innocent but deeply offensive ‘inshallah’ — must be made a criminal offence"

"It must be made illegal for Muslims to buy land, even from other Muslims, and of course, inheritance of land by Muslims must stop"

"those few [refugees] that we welcome must wear electronic tags"

"They must be banned from gathering in groups greater than five"

"That means no more voting rights. That means no more freedom of assembly. That means drastic restriction of the right to free speech. That means an end to the freedom to practise Islam itself"

"The Muslim ghettoes we have allowed to develop across Europe themselves must be destroyed. They must be dismantled and the people dispersed. The State must seize any assets they have and use that to assist them to travel to another country of their choice"

"Islam is the greatest single threat to humanity that exists today"

This disgraceful language is not going to lead to the necessary understanding and co-operation - on the contrary it will inflame the situation and create more radicals. We all know the old adage "give a dog a bad name......", if people like this continue down the route of propagating lies and spreading hatred about a predominantly peaceful religion they will be equally to blame when the dog bites the rest of us.

France needs learn that as long as it has ten different security agencies all refusing to share intelligence, it makes atrocities such as this almost impossible to stop.

The UK had the same situation before the terrible bombings in London's underground and on a bus. Now there is a weekly meeting between the heads of all the Security Services.

Defending your services' interests should not come before defending France and her people.

Absoulutely Jane - need to put the needs of the public before personal posturing and trying to gain any capital from the situation. Perhaps some strong leadership would help?

Quite correct Jane. The French Intelligence Services has become a bit of a joke.
It was funny to hear Sarkozy criticising the inadequacies of the present system as it was he who effectively cut services to save money and reorganised part of the service in 2008.

Many in the know reckon it was Sarkozy's actions which has led to the present problems. Mind you, I suppose Hollande could reinstate the service as it was but that isn't going to happen unfortunately.

I recall hearing a Northern Irish psychiatrist commenting about the Troubles in the early 1970s. He said that fewer patients were being referred now that any death or attack was attributed to one political side or the other. News reports stated that "a Catholic man has been murdered", or a Protestant, rather than "a 33 year-old father" or "a teenaged boy".

When I heard about the news I pointed out that this could just have been a nutter in a lorry. Even the fact that he had a "Muslim" name did not mean he was a jihadist or attached to an organisation. If it was ISIS, so be it, but I am scared by our readiness to attribute any attack to a political regime.

Some crimes are committed by criminals, some of whom are probably insane. If we assume they are jihadists we are crediting ISIS with greater recognition than they deserve. If an arab nutter commits a crime, they can claim the credit without taking any risks themselves.

Just my quiet personal opinion, from here in the countryside where I happily spent most of 14th July with a Franco-Maroc muslim family, who are as horrified as we are, but a bit more scared.

I couldn't agree more Diana, I am more frightened of the potential problems that may be generated by Islamaphobia and the persecution of one sector of the population than I am of the likelihood of being caught in an attack.

I also think you are spot on with your comment that to credit ISIS with the ability to have undertaken every random attack by some madman is playing right into their hands - and heightening the fear for the rest of us.

There are many violent occurrences every day by mentally ill or just plain evil people who will try and validate their actions by claiming it is for some cause or other - but the fact is some people will carry out these atrocities just because that is who they are - and throughout history it has always been so.

We should remind ourselves that many more innocent civilians in th Middle East have been killed by the West for no good reason. What surprises me is that so few of our Moslem brothers think they have the right to do something to level the score.

Hello Sand, Thank you for your comments. I also followed the link that Kit Wells posted and was so appalled by the content that I had to delete my reaction. I mean, why stop at Muslims? Why not castrate all men because some are rapists...

Well said Mike - unfortunately the western press don't seem to attach as much importance to the loss of Middle Eastern lives, which is shameful, because if they did there might be more understanding of the despair felt by many Muslims - as you say it's surprising that so few feel the need to take the law into their own hands.

In reply to your comments Catherine - I agree, where do we stop if we embark on this type of thinking?

Kit, I followed your link - and like you I found plenty to agree with, particularly in terms of the 'fundamental' (excuse the pun) lack of a sense of humour....and free speech, womens rights are concerned. It is likely that IS are claiming credit for this barbaric act, because it suits them to do so. Apparently the perpetrator had severe mental health problems and was being medicated for them.....so this was the action of a poor 'nutcase' living an isolated life and this gave him an outlet for his frustrations....obsession with Islam was just a vehicle for this...

The disgraceful behaviour of some people at the moment of silence is the real victory of IS.