The Real War On Christmas

Mark Steyn wrote on Wednesday about the terrorist attack on the Christmas market in Strasbourg:

Yesterday, the usual “known wolf” – that’s to say, known to the highest levels of the French security apparatus – killed three [A fourth victim has died and a fifth is brain dead.] and wounded a dozen more in this year’s first attack on a Christmas market – in Strasbourg. The jihadist yelled …oh, go on, take a wild guess: Joyeux Noël? Bonnes Fêtes? No, he stuck to the traditional greeting.

Allahu Akbar.

Just over two years ago, in the summer of 2016, I met a delightful German lady who lives just across the border from Strasbourg and whose husband, in fact, was born and raised there. Along with her child, my friend, as I put it, “had found herself on the receiving end of some vibrant multicultural outreach from one of Mutti Merkel’s boy charmers”:

As a result, she no longer goes out after dark. She had also decided – with reluctance, because she enjoyed it – to cancel her participation in a local Christmas market, where she’d sung carols every year – in broad daylight.

‘Why would you do that?’ I asked.

‘Because it’s Christmas,’ she said, ‘and I’m worried Christmas will be a target.’

Since then, Christmas has been targeted more than once, and European Christmas markets are often protected by diversity bollards.

Following Tuesday’s terrorist attack, ISIS has gotten into the act:

As Strasbourg’s Christmas market reopens today following Tuesday’s deadly attack, an ISIS-supporting media group disseminated an image of Santa riddled with bullets in the city’s center.

The poster shows a nighttime depiction of Place Kléber, the central square in Strasbourg, France, as a jihadist with a rifle propped against his shoulder surveys the scene. A Christmas tree is in flames behind the body of Santa.

“Beat him violently,” says the text in French. “Be sure to inflict the greatest losses on the enemy.”

Terrorist supporters have threatened Christmas observations in other cities as well:

Two weeks ago, an ISIS-supporting media group depicted a hoodie-clad, knife-wielding jihadist approaching a Christmas-decorated Toronto shopping and entertainment district.

The image showed Yonge-Dundas Square lit up at night, with the Christmas tree outside of the Dundas subway station entrance. Photoshopped at the base of the Christmas tree were two grenades, sticks of dynamite with a timer, and a blood-spattered backpack.
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Soon after that, the same group released an image of the angel Christmas lights stretching over Regent Street in London. Blood-spattered gunshot wounds were photoshopped onto the angel in the forefront, as a rifle-wielding jihadist looked on.

“Terrorize them in their lands and kill them wherever you find them,” said the text.

We walked down Regent Street last week.

Every politician should be asked how he or she proposes to prevent such attacks on Christmas celebrations, several of which have already occurred in the U.S. More diversity bollards is not an acceptable answer.

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