United against terrorism

The heinous attacks that took place in Brussels Tuesday morning killing scores of innocent people and wounding many others are deplorable by all means.

Attacks on innocent people, be it in Brussels or anywhere else in the world, are attacks against humanity as a whole, and perpetrators, planners and those who provoke such attacks should be sought and fought by all means available.

Jordan, which has recently thwarted an attempt to launch coordinated terrorist attacks on its soil in the northern city of Irbid, and the Jordanian people as a whole, understand the pain felt by the Belgian people and Europe.

Our capital city, Amman, was the target of such atrocious assaults in 2005, when terrorists attacked unsuspecting innocent people at three of Amman’s hotels, also killing scores and wounding many others. 

More importantly, they managed to shatter the feeling of security enjoyed by Jordanians.

Ever since then, Jordan has been at the forefront of forces fighting terrorism and extremism, collaborating with countries of the world, including Belgium, which on Tuesday fell victim to terrorism.

Jordan voiced support for Belgium and expressed condemnation in the strongest terms of such attacks by evil forces, which are targeting innocent people around the world — Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas and, of course, our part of the world — to spread their sick agenda.

The immediate aim of the attacks is of course to cause death, destruction and spread fear, while the bigger goal is to create rift between peoples, countries and civilisations.

Such agendas should never be allowed to succeed.

The world has to come together to fight evil forces standing behind these agendas.

The ongoing fight in the region is currently focusing on military power, mainly against the Daesh terrorist group in Syria and Iraq.

This fight is coupled with a parallel security effort attempting to prevent any spillover of the bloodshed and destruction into neighbouring and other countries of the world.

The long-term fight that the world should also keep in mind is the ideological battle against the thought and dogmas that breed terrorism and help recruit people from all over the world to fight, as His Majesty King Abdullah repeatedly warned, a third world war.

The world, which today stands in solidarity with Brussels and the Belgian people, should not ignore these three fronts: military, security and ideological.

The Tuesday Brussels attacks that intended to set people apart should be a unifying factor, bringing all of us together to pray for the dead and to intensify the war against terrorists.