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“Governments across Europe are learning that immigration is an issue they ignore at their electoral peril,” writes Simon Hankinson.
Shock, fear, and terror are feelings that Taylor Swift has, recently, come to know all too well.
On July 29, 2024, three girls ages 6, 7, and 9 were stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift themed dance class in Southport, England. The murderer, Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, has also been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder. In a statement issued after the Southport attack, Swift said she was “just completely in shock.”
Mere days later, Swift would experience that same shock once more. On August 8, a planned terror attack at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna was thwarted. The suspects in the foiled plot, who are now alleged to have ties to the terrorist group ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), sought to kill “tens of thousands” of fans before the CIA intervened. Understandably, it resulted in the cancellation of several upcoming shows on the European leg of her ongoing Eras Tour.
“The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear,” wrote Taylor Swift in an Instagram post. She also described feeling “a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”
Several outlets have noted comparisons between the Vienna plot and the suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England in May of 2017. The attack killed 22 people, injured 1,017 more, and destroyed the arena's foyer. Police later discovered the perpetrators, Muslim extremists Salman and Hashem Abedi, had participated in the Libyan Civil war and had ties to members of both Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
It was Britain’s deadliest terror attack since the July 7, 2005 public transit bombings, where Islamic terrorists killed 52 victims and injured 700 more. But, sadly, the both incidents pale in comparison to the March 22, 2024 ISIS-K terrorist attack in Moscow which left 130 (later confirmed to be 145) dead—the deadliest terrorist attack in Europe in 20 years.
While the recent ISIS plot was disrupted, it has renewed a sense of fear and concern for the future of large-scale entertainment events in Europe. Recently, the United Nations’ Undersecretary for Counterterrorism, Vladimir Vorokov, stated that the ISIS threats have "become manifest" in Vienna and that he considers the group “the greatest external terrorist threat to the continent."
The European Union agency Europol echoes this assessment, stating that “the main concern of Member States is jihadist terrorism and the closely related phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters who travel to and from conflict zones.” Many of these plots have been linked to individuals who arrived in Europe, legally or otherwise, under the guise of seeking refuge.
To make matters worse, ISIS recruitment is—despite the UN’s stance—only “intensifying.” How can this be?
Simply put, the face of the continent is changing. In every European country, birth rates have fallen below replacement levels. Partially motivated by economic and labor shortage concerns—but also enthralled by appeals to compassion and the prospect of helping families escape poverty and war—the progressive Left has, across virtually every European nation, championed the E.U.’s push for mass migration and opened the floodgates for predominantly African and Middle Eastern immigrants (led far and away by Syria).
Progressive legislators insisted then, and continue to insist, that there is not a statistically significant correlation between an increased population of immigrants and the frequency of terror attacks. However, there is. In fact, 89% of terror attacks in Europe are carried out by first, second, and third generation immigrants, both “regular and irregular.”
One of the Left's most significant political victories was the 1985 Schengen Agreement, which sought the “gradual abolition” of police and customs checks between European countries. It was not a bad idea for faster travel between nations and allowing greater freedom of movement—but it’s not a great system for promoting safety after introducing tens of millions of refugees. In the last decade alone, around 30 million migrants have entered Europe.
The United States walks a similar path, though it’s not as far along down the road as is the E.U,. That said, the influx of migrants from the southern border continues to be a top concern for voters—and a thorn in the side of Democrat nominee Kamala Harris. Just last week, the “border czar” found herself in hot water over the Biden-Harris administration’s refusal to release the nationalities of people on the FBI terror watchlist arrested at the border by Border Patrol.
“In Europe and in the United States, the far left demands tolerance of endless economic immigration under the guise of asylum,” writes the Heritage Foundation’s Simon Hankinson. “In response, conservatives who put national interests and local people before this dangerous globalist ideology can reap further electoral rewards.”
“There's never been a country that allowed 21 million people to come in over a three-year period… many of whom are from prisons, many of whom are murderers and drug dealers and child traffickers," said former President Donald Trump in regards to Harris’ handling of the border. “She wants open borders... She was the border czar, whether you like it or not, but even if you don't want to use that term, she was in charge of the border.”
In Europe, several prominent progressives—once staunch defenders of lax migration policy—are starting to speak publicly about the massive logistical problem that open borders represent.
“Governments across Europe are learning that immigration is an issue they ignore at their electoral peril,” writes Hankinson. “The Sweden Democrats won a plurality of seats in parliament, with many voters motivated by the failed integration of refugees. On the campaign trail, party leader Jimmie Akesson said that ‘many Swedes are immensely tired of immigration, of crime, of the electricity prices.’ Even former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, a Social Democrat, admitted the country had failed to integrate immigrants over the past 20 years.”
There are now a myriad of European countries who have agreed to suspend the Schengen Agreement and reinforce border controls. Among the countries’ respective reasoning, Germany has cited “the generally elevated threat of terrorism;” Austria has cited “irregular migration, migrant smuggling activities, and organized crime, as well as the strain on the asylum reception system;” Italy has cited the “risk of terrorist activity, connected to the turmoil in the Middle East and the possible risk of terrorist infiltration in irregular migration flows;” France cites “the Moscow attack of 22 March 2024 claimed by the Islamic State,” and so forth.
It’s a small step in the right direction. But it still wont rout terrorism entirely, of course, nor is it likely to decrease the millions of failed asylum-seekers in the Schengen Area, only 16% of which will, on average, actually be deported.
The U.S. sings a similar tune, though it’s typically more concerned about drug cartels and gang violence than Syrian refugees.
“The terrorist threat from Syrian refugees in the United States is exaggerated,” writes Shreya Sinha in the International Journal on Responsibility. “There is a major difference between Europe’s vetting of asylum seekers from Syria and how the United States screens refugees. Another major factor in play is the geographic distance between the United States and Syria, which allows the US government to better control the migrants, while large numbers of Syrians who try to go to Europe are less carefully checked.”
Ultimately, if Europe or the U.S. want to continue enjoying music festivals and large gatherings—to continue hosting globally-renowned acts like Swift and Grande—they must get a handle on terror. Europe risks losing its cultural vibrancy to fear. The States are not far behind. It’s time to reassess the West’s mass migration experiment and the well-intentioned but disastrous policies that transformed once-great cities into proverbial powderkegs.
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, as they say.
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