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By Crethi Plethi

More than 50 World leaders attended the “Republican March” to show solidarity and unity after the Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris, France. From left to right: Israel’s Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, France’s President Francois Hollande and Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel. (Image grab video).

The Friday’s terrorist attacks on the editorial staff of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the Hypercacher kosher supermarket seem to have united the peoples of Europe.

Today, an estimated 1.5 million people joined French President Francois Hollande in the Marche Republicaine (Republican march) in Paris to express solidarity and pay tribute to the victims of the jihadist attacks. Among them Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, European Council President Donald Tusk, Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas — more than 50 world leaders in all.

In an earlier statement however, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, said that “we are not at war with extremists and we do not fight against Islam.” His statement is the stereotypical ignorance and contemporary European attitude toward Islamic extremism. Europe may choose to stay blind, but the jihadists will not keep ignoring Europe.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has a better reality of the jihadist threat when he addressed the crowd at the Grand Synagogue in Paris on Sunday and said that “those who murdered Jews at a synagogue in Jerusalem and those who murdered Jews and journalists in Paris are part of the same problem. We must condemn them and fight them. Israel will fight terror, and will continue to defend itself.”

The current European political climate is not addressing the roots of the problem. More stringent security measures will be imposed, but this will not stop the homegrown jihadist. Domestic extremism fueled by Islamic exegesis and Islamic tradition will continue to grow in Europe. The homegrown jihadist is radicalizing in Europe, not in the Middle East. They are mostly born and raised in the same country where they commit terrorist attacks. Some of them join Islamist terror groups in the Middle East such as IS and Jabhat Al-Nusra where they receive terrorist training, and after a while, return to Europe. These sleeper cells can become active whenever they want. To ignore this reality is mere stupidity.

If Europe stays ignorant about the source of the problem while not able to protect its own society against this domestic terrorist threat, it will inevitably have to fight this battle in the Middle East sooner or later. Because the jihad will not ignore Europe.

Crethi Plethi is the pseudonym for Harald van Es and is the founder and director of CrethiPlethi.com. He writes articles for CrethiPlethi.com in Dutch and English on the Middle East, Israel, Revolutionary Islamism, Multiculturalism and the Netherlands. He has lived in Jaffa (Tel Aviv), Israel. He currently lives in the Netherlands. For all the exclusive blog entries by Crethi Plethi, go here.