Don’t give way to xenophobia in wake of Brussels attacks

The overnight news that greeted Americans on Tuesday morning was both familiar and grim.

Two explosions had rocked the departure hall of the airport in Brussels, Belgium, just before 8 a.m. as travelers were boarding morning flights. About an hour later, a bomb exploded in a car of a subway train as it was pulling out of a crowded station near the headquarters of the European Union.

The Islamic State, a terror group that enlists suicidal thugs in its quest for relevance, took responsibility.

These were contemptible terrorist attacks, planned for maximum exposure and impact. They left more than 30 civilians dead and hundreds wounded. The European continent was again rattled, just as it was after attacks four months ago in Paris. In our nation, the attacks seem likely to gin up more xenophobic talk about immigrants and Muslims.

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump wasted no time popping off about closing borders and torturing people — both of which are precisely the wrong ways to combat terror. Sen. Ted Cruz weighed in with a wrongheaded call for banning refugees from nations “with a significant ISIS or al-Qaida presence.”

What is needed in Europe and the United States is clearheaded intelligence and effective anti-terrorism strategies.

European nations continue to cope with large numbers of migrants fleeing war and economic ruin in Syria, Iraq and other Middle East nations and seeking sanctuary on the continent. Some terrorists have posed as refugees.

But the reverse migration may present greater problems. It’s too easy for disenchanted European citizens to leave their homes in Belgium, France, England and other nations to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State. Most of the Paris attackers were European citizens.

As a member of Belgium’s counterterrorism task force told the U.S. military publication CTC Sentinel, the threat is no longer coming just from persons already radicalized by the extremist Islamic movement. Young Europeans who are inclined toward crime and violence increasingly are finding a harbor with the Islamic State and its notions of medieval cruelty.

Belgium is especially vulnerable. As The New York Times reported, it has an acute problem with citizens traveling to Syria or Iraq. Its Muslim communities are isolated from the broader society and infiltrated with jihadists. And its government has been slow in developing effective counterterrorism operations.

It took four months to capture Salah Abdeslam, the lone survivor of the 10 persons believed to ha ve conducted the Nov. 13 attacks in and around Paris. He was taken into custody on Friday.

As it continues to lose territory in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State is turning to audacious acts of terror elsewhere to establish its relevance. No nation should be considered safe. Intelligence agencies must operate at peak effectiveness and work together.

Authorities and citizens must understand that disaffiliated persons within their nations are as capable of harm as outsiders. It is unfair to blame the attacks on refugees, many of whom have themselves endured horrific violence.

Now is the time to stand with the citizens of Brussels, who should have been able to catch their planes or ride the subway without becoming players in a terrorist group’s deranged plot.

And now is the time to think clearly and avoid demagoguery.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Don’t give way to xenophobia in wake of Brussels attacks."