Brussels Attacks Point to Broad Terrorist Network in Belgium

Three explosions in Brussels, two at the airport and one at the metro station, “once again demonstrate the difficulties in securing ‘soft targets,’ particularly where they relate to the transportation system,” writes Shiraz Maher for New Statesman. He also casts doubt on a theory that the attacks are a specific retaliation for the arrest of a 26-year-old associated with the coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris in late 2015. Instead, he suggests that the attacks point to a broad terrorist network in Belgium. Investigators should consider how the accused terrorist managed to hide in the Molenbeek district of Brussels for four months and why some Muslim neighborhoods have higher rates of radicalization than others. In previous articles for New Statesman, Maher, a senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College, has suggested that the Islamic State is intent on defeating the West by attempting to polarize Muslim and non-Muslim communities alike. – YaleGlobal