Pandering, bigotry won't solve extremist threat
By Fareed Zakaria
Updated 11:25 PM ET, Sun July 17, 2016
(CNN)The mowing down of dozens of men, women and children in Nice on Thursday was a gruesome and barbaric act. And it again prompts the question: How can we detect such a terrorist in the future?
French authorities say the attacker appears not to have had a record of affiliation or even interest in Islamist groups like ISIS. He was not, at least from what we currently know, religious, had no known record of attending a mosque or religious institution of any kind, and was not thought to be a practicing Muslim by those who knew him. (He did, however, reportedly have a long history of psychological troubles.)
But why does France have this pool of radicalized people?
It is, of course, complicated. As I wrote earlier this year, the new kind of terrorist we are facing seems to be drawn into terrorism not through religion, "but rather who has chosen the path of terror as the ultimate act of rebellion against the modern world." In other words, they are getting radicalized before they get Islamized. It is also essential to remember that we are dealing with relative handfuls of people; the vast majority of Muslims living in France, Belgium and elsewhere are not extremists.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/17/opinions/nice-attack-zakaria/
