The scared child in me would like to see Britain, the US, France & Germany, build walled ghettos for Muslims, load up a fleet of bombers and nuke the entire middle east further into the dark ages in response.
The more rational, mature adult in me realises that in order to eradicate 'fundamentalism' the response needs to be a little more thoughtful. Too much of the response to these sort of events is placed on their effect while the real cause is over simplified, viewed in one dimension, and often worsened by the response - which is often opportunistic on the part of the western governments, based on emotion and disingenuous.
I'm in no way trying to justify attacks like this, they are wrong, quite simply. Regardless of what religion or creed you identify with, they are wrong. There is no legitimate justification. I think they are as representative of Islam in general, as they criminals who bombed Canary Warf were representative of the Irish in general, or as militia groups in the States are of Americans in general, or the people who torn London to shreds during the riots are of Londoners in general. They are misguided, and opportunistic and to some degree responding to and capitalising on a sense of disenfranchisement.
Now more than ever in the west we need to resist our urge for revenge and be as welcoming, tolerant and inclusive as we can to remove the warped justification these people wrap themselves in. Thats not to say there shouldn't be a response, but it should be appropriate, strategic and aimed at making it impossible for these people and their ideology to exist, or to be seen as appealing, real or valid.
We cannot control IS, not matter how much we want to think we can, by marginalising or blaming Muslims in general, the one thing we can be guaranteed is that we will increase the level of disenfranchisement required to drive people to seek justification in religion.
They aren't waging a holy war, they are behaving like petulant children, and like petulant children they think that they best way to get what they want is to scream and shout and be destructive. We need to respond like adults and suck any hint of oxygen from the arguments and reasons they put forward to justify themselves.
In my view the only answer to this, and many other issues that exist in the world today, are for us to see beyond emotion and try to ensure that conditions exist that enable people to flourish. If we don't do that we will continue to see those who see themselves as victims respond by lashing out.
It's a sad day, not just for Paris or France or Europe, but for all of humanity.
