Pont Noir

Will you change your travel plans because of terrorism and associated heightened security or not?

I had to reply yes in this survey as we were due to meet friends in Paris last Saturday and decided not to go as a result of events.

I too would have to say Yes.. We are in the UK and would like to go Christmas shopping in the new Grand Central but feel very apprehensive.. I know you should carry on as normal but if you don't need to go somewhere, however nice it would be.

I replied, optimistically, no; we still hope to return to Creuse, as usual, next May. But in the USA, ISIS has managed to inspire many of our politicians, including practically all of the Republican presidential candidates, to fall into an islamophobic trap; other than in the FN in France, I've not seen a comparable response there. Of course, the USA is not monolithic, and several states (including California) have declined to participate in the more general hysteria. Surely, the refugees must include some of Europe's and the USA's most committed allies in the struggle against Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. My maternal grandparents were immigrants to the USA many years ago, and their cousins who remained in Germany and Lithuania were exterminated by the Nazis, so perhaps I am biased.

VirtDave, not sure its islamophobia. As three of the terrorists came in under forged Syrian passports, how many others are either already here or on their way. There is also a very interesting video which shows how this in fact does not help them. The country needs making safe and as it seems to have brought all the countries together to wipe out the IS bases then this must be a good thing. I see that a charity has stopped bringing stuff to Calais because the men, of which Calais is 97%; have thrown the stuff away and do not want their help. It is a sad situation but we do seem to spend more time and effort looking after the rest of the world rather than caring for our own. If they are westernised I do not have a problem but those who wish to follow the cult to its medieval roots with the burqa, then I believe they are better off in an eastern country more suitable to their religious needs. Always an emotive subject and I am not against immigration but I do believe in balance otherwise it causes problems. Favouritism to immigrants also causes resentment. One needs to live in a high immigrant area to understand and in the UK places like Luton; Leicester, Bradford are unrecognisable as being a UK town.

I certainly can't disagree with the concerns you list--and I do think that the gulf states' reactions to the refugees' plights have been deplorable. But I also believe that (despite the very real problems expressed, for instance, in Houllebecq's recent novel Soumission), the reactions of the USA and Europe have played right into ISIS' plans.