Could the London Bridge attack have been prevented?
After a man stabbed two people to death and injured two others in an attack in London on Friday, terrorism has become the number one topic in the election campaign. The suspect had already been convicted of terrorist crimes in 2012 and spent six years in prison before being released on probation in 2018. Now the Labour Party and Tories are piling blame on each other. Europe's media find other reasons for the terror.
Cutbacks choking justice system
Introducing longer prison sentences for convicted terrorists as Prime Minister Boris Johnson has proposed is not the solution, The Guardian writes:
“In his tortuous attempt to find a way to blame Labour for the attack, Johnson wants us to relentlessly focus on the question of how Usman Khan could have been let out so early. The real question to be asked is, how could a convicted terrorist spend eight years inside the English prison system and still emerge a radical jihadist? The answer has to be viewed against a background of prison and probation services that have faced part-privatisation and cuts, under austerity, of 40 percent in funding during the time that Khan was in prison. Prisons have had to cope with record levels of violence, assaults and suicides.”
The West's immigration policy is to blame
Western Europe will continue to be hit by terror attacks in the future, the pro-government daily Magyar Nemzet writes:
“The states of Western Europe have granted the immigrants rights but haven't demanded that they fulfil their civic obligations in exchange. In the name of political correctness the majority has had to adapt to the lifestyle of the minority. ... With the growing percentage [of Muslims in Europe], the proportion of those who want to take revenge against the majority also grows. They do it either because they feel they deserve more from a thankless society or because the state, which has woken up far too late, wants to revoke the concessions it has already made.”
Deradicalisation alone is not enough
De Standaard voices concern about the security situation in Belgium in view of returning IS fighters:
“Without strong criminal prosecution policy our public security is far too dependent on deradicalisation workers. But they are engaged in an insecure business. ... Success can hardly be measured. ... Dozens of convicts are now at large once more. So far nothing bad has happened. But in view of the return of IS fighters who fought to the bitter end and the war crimes they have committed this is no longer a fitting policy.”