The way the Islamic State group sees it, Europe is the soft underbelly of the West and is the place it must be hit. In the past week France (due to the values it represents) and Belgium (because of the infrastructure in place there) have become places where security forces are more visible than tourists. At this rate, classical Europe will go from being a tourist attraction to a hub for adventurists. But the actions of ISIS, the terrorist attacks in France and the panic in Brussels have made us almost forget that in this crazy and violent world, which we all share, there are other terrorist groups and other continents. Friday's terrorist attack in Mali serves to remind us of something I personally knew and experienced while working in Mauritania, its neighbor to the West, for four years. The leader of the Al-Mourabitoun terrorist organization that claimed responsibility for the attack in Mali is Mokhtar Belmokhtar (nicknamed "One-eye"). He was a big part of my time as ambassador to Mauritania. This is a man who has turned terrorism into a way of life. For four years, Belmokhtar threatened the Israeli Embassy in Nouakchott. In February 2008, shots were fired at the building; six people were wounded. In the 1980s, Belmokhtar went to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, which is how he lost an eye. On numerous occasions, after we thought he was killed, he rose from the grave -- just to perpetrate another terrorist attack. In 1992, he returned to his homeland of Algeria to take part in the brutal civil war there. At the end of that bitter war (which claimed the lives of 200,000 people), he helped found the terrorist group AQIM (al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb), which was forced to retreat from Algeria to the triangle frontier situated between Mali, Algeria and Mauritania. It was there, in the heart of the Sahara Desert, that he established his own terrorist fiefdom. It was very reminiscent to what we have seen along the frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan, certain provinces of Yemen, or the caliphate established by ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Belmokhtar's group, which is loyal to al-Qaida, can easily shift its allegiance to ISIS. Terrorists like to follow the latest trends, too. Nor was the name Al-Mourabitoun chosen at random: The group is named after the Almoravids, a North African Islamic dynasty of Berbers who in the 11th and 12th centuries played a crucial role in preventing the fall of al-Andalus to the Iberian Christian kingdoms and keeping Spain Muslim. Today, Al-Mourabitoun first and foremost aspires to undermine the government regimes in the Maghreb and West Africa. The group has no problems recruiting new members. As is the case with ISIS, plenty of young criminals are enchanted by the idea of giving their lives meaning, which they can easily accomplish by killing infidels. Violence without borders Over the weekend I pondered how three continents I live or have lived on were all hit by terrorist attacks within the same week. I thought about how there is no actual difference between the attacks in Israel, Paris and Mali. In all three cases we are talking about the same ideology that seeks, in the name of Allah, to impose its will through violent means. It's unclear whether the citizens of Europe truly understand the exact significance of recent events and the real reasons behind everything that has happened. But we can already see newspaper editorials (in Le Figaro, for instance) in favor of nullifying the Schengen Agreement (which allows free movement between EU countries); while journalist Jacques Attali, writing in the French weekly news magazine L'Express, seeks to clarify to the people of France that the attackers criticize us for "who we are. And that is exactly what they despise and want to destroy." Now the very same sentence can be said about Africa, France, and Brussels -- and about Israel, as well. Because in Europe and in France people are beginning to realize that terrorism doesn't exist because of despair, occupation or other nonsense, but because of a murderous ideology that has been in existence since the time of the murderous 11th-century Islamic sect known as the "Hashshashin" (the Assassins). It's time for folks in Israel to understand this, too.
Credit: Reuters
