Islamic State

Earlier this month, Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani called on Islamists everywhere to turn the holy month of Ramadan into a “calamity for the infidels.” The lone wolf terrorist attacks in Tunisia, France, Iraq and Kuwait appear to be a direct response to this call and there will undoubtedly be more to come.

Over the past few years, Islamic State terrorists have deliberately massacred innocent families, communities and tribes; burned and beheaded Christians, Yazidis, journalists and aid workers; tortured and enslaved hostages; filled mass graves; thrown homosexuals off tall buildings; attacked power plants; destroyed churches, historical sites and ancient artifacts; and groomed teenage boys as suicide bombers and teenage girls as sex slaves.

And what has been our response to this catalogue of atrocities? Many on the Left simply shrug and blame our overthrow of the vicious Taliban and Saddam Hussein regimes (as if the Islamofascist threat hadn’t been growing exponentially prior to 9/11 and 2003 -- and ignoring the fact that IS and the aforementioned despotisms have murdered more Muslims than anyone else). Many on the political right adopt an isolationist stance, apparently under the impression that we can avoid (or subcontract) this fight. We can’t. We must use our armed forces and military might to annihilate this group, its supporters, its affiliates and propagandists or we will be living -- and dying -- with these horrors for decades to come.

Keith Gilmour

Netherton Gate

Glasgow