We must be willing to pursue terrorism

Countless global terror attacks by a brutal, boorish and barbaric Islamic State is a serious concern for us all. Belgium, France, Germany, Islamic State militants seem intent to destroy the soul of civilised humanity, and we the citizens of that humanity must now prepare ourselves for what is sadly becoming the norm.

Society must never underestimate how low those who seek to engage in terrorism are prepared to go, history proves that. Whether it be the public execution of an eighty four year old priest in France 2016, or a kidnapping of a defenceless mother like Jean McConville, dragged at gunpoint from her home and ten young children and made to ‘disappear’ by the IRA in Belfast 1972. Morality is never in the mind-set of a terrorist, no matter their generation or so called ‘cause’.

The recent spate of Islamic State terror has received widespread global condemnation, and rightly so, terrorism must never be allowed to find a sympathetic voice. Sadly this has not always been the case, terrorism in Northern Ireland found sympathy from some within the international political community. Those who provided sympathy seemed ignorant to the fact that their words and subsequent actions spurred on a ruthless campaign of terror.

It is therefore vital that the international political and societal classes gather a true understanding of the nature of the terrorist beast they are dealing with, forming an opinion not just for the sake of it, but from an educated and informed perspective.

However welcome the almost universal voice of damnation is, we remain acutely aware that this alone will not stop the rise of global terrorism and cannot be the nation’s only response. Evil exists, it continues to plot and plan a way to devour its next defenceless target, and groups such as Islamic State will stop at nothing to have their barbaric ‘cause’ highlighted worldwide.

If we are to stand a chance in combating the threat of global terrorism, we must be prepared to pursue it in an international collective manner through organisations such as the United Nations, an organisation whose origins lie in a desire to prevent conflict in a collective global manner. Its response must now be robust, and determined, using all in its power to defeat this great evil, in the crudest of terminology it’s a case of ‘hunt or be hunted’.

Society, internationally feels destabilised and threated, terrorists feed off that anxiety. It’s time to turn the tide and prove that evil no matter what form it presents itself in, is earmarked for failure.

Jonathan Buckley, DUP councillor