Another awful day for France.

I like to think that our police force would be more alert than the French were on that awful day.
I've just been reading that: they didn't notice that the Lorry was not refrigerated ( I pointed that out)
NO Lorry is allowed down that stench of road weighing over 3.5 tonne. That one was 19 tonne.
The Lorry was caught on camera going down that road FOUR TIMES that day.
God help the French if that's the calibre of police in their country.

Grrr. ISIL have taken responsibility (they are always slow). 4 others have been arrested. They found hand grenades and other weaponry at his flat. This wasn't the actions of a loose cannon nutcase. It was a radicalised vulnerable petty crook with psychological problems. Pop down to Morrisons and see if you can buy a hand grenade. He was funded and equipped.

How did he have a HGV licence when he had medical issues [psychological ones, that is]?

but was it a terrorist attack? It seems more and more he was just a crazy, deluded, bitter loser- and not a practising Muslim either.

Just a thought but is this what happens when a cult/religion or whatever doesn't have the moderating input that women bring? Something I've been pondering on recently. It sort of reminds me of the men whose marriages break down and they kill both themselves and their children.[don't want to offend any men reading this by the way; just trying to make sense of it]

I agree that the youth they encourage and lure are usually disaffected individuals with little education and few prospects. (However, that wasn't true of the three A grade girls who ran way from Bethnal Green).
What puzzles me is that others in their families - parents, siblings etc. - don't see it coming and often say they would never suspect their relative of committing such a crime.
It is baffling mich777 and without getting inside their heads I fear we will never find a way of changing their thinking. I think Sarkozy is right in saying that 18 months down the line France is no safer, and certainly no closer to dealing with terrorists. Some dramatic action needs to be taken.

You would have to go back a long way to explain it fully. And I think most people were unaware of the problem until the twin towers atrocity. I suppose, in a nutshell, the extreme IS think we are all 'infidels'. We can't negotiate with them. Even if we converted. As we are tainted. So they simply want to annihilate us (anyone not like them). Unlike most other situations, it would be better to negotiate (although Hitler would've been the same, he wanted to annihilate the Jews). But they go about their 'war' surreptitiously. Radicalising people who are either young and innocent, those with nothing to lose, already bear grudges, or drug addled. Easy targets. I too pray for peace. Who in their right mind would not want a peaceful world, where different cultures and religions can live together respecting each other. Sadly, with regard to them, we cannot.

Good post mich.

To be honest I don't even understand what the reason is for these terror attacks.

Can anyone explain so that I can understand please.

If it's because our cultural norms are not acceptable then if it were me I would move to an area where I felt more comfortable and the laws of the land or religion suited me.

It's not like nowadays we are unaware of what each country has to offer in the way of it's laws , citizenship, and customs... That's freedom of choice surely?

I feel very sad for anyone under the threat of violence and fear. I thought the Victoria Darbyshire programme on how Sharia courts/councils work was extremely interesting but I would like to see them televised a bit more possibly.At least I will have a better understanding of how they work and maybe there are some benefits to them? But I will repeat I think here in the UK we do allow a lot of support to other religions and their are quite a few of them.I believe that one can tell how benficial a religion is by seeing the action of it's followers and if they seem like bad actions, immoral,unethical, help them to evolve into the best religion of all love.

Praying that all the world knows peace and happiness as we are here for such a short time and I do not wish to be made to feel hatred or total indifference to any religion, I believe that inter faith workshops can teach us all our similarities not focus on the negative of differences. After all we are all human beings and from that basis only we have so much in common...don't you think??

They may not be supporters of ISIS, but that does not stop ISIS claiming the credit for what they do, when it suits them.

Listening to a French security expert on the radio saying that these people are not neseccarily supporters of ISIS. They have their own grudges against western society.
( his words)

Looking at the night sky and thinking about the child in intensive care who remains unidentified.I hope someone finds him soon.

Monica,the girl in Bristol was called Jo I believe.

It wasn,t her boyfriend who killed her,it was a tenant in the adjourning flat.
Yes,that poor landlord....trial by the press.

Whatever IS say you cannot yet be sure that IS has been responsible for this particular atrocity.

We need a bit more information. Given the propensity for American loners to shoot up their fellow students. you do need to try and find what his motive was. There was that dreadful shooting in Norway some time back.
Whoever might be found to be responsible is an appalling person caught up in the most awful mis-truths about their religion or just totally misanthropic.

I wonder why IS waited so long to make its announcement?

As usual Full Facts has good information on Sharia

The UK's Sharia 'Courts'

I think they operate under their divorce and finance laws, but don't see how they would stand up in the court of law. So if say a woman wanted to challenge say her husbands custody of the children -. I think they automaticallygo to the man? - then presumably she would have to get her divorce recognised by the UK court before proceeding? Sounds a minefield.

It did take IS a while to say it was them, so doubts must remain. Quote ..As Brendan Cox, widower of MP Jo Cox whose funeral was due to take place today, tweeted: "Jo would ask us not to fight hate with hate but draw together to drain the swamp that extremism breeds in" Wise words yet again.

agree mich777 with both posts. I think we can now safely say he had been radicalised and to keep arguing the point he may not is avoiding the main problem. I think we are accepting of other cultures here on the whole. Persecuting Muslims for the actions of extremists is wrong. Would be like persecuting all Irish people for the troubles back in the day. It's wrong to generalise. However, it does worry me re the Sharia courts. If I understand Sharia law. Which in my perception, is twisting the words of a much respected and worshipped religious text for unpleasant means. Then I can't see how these courts can operate in this country. As the punishments are unacceptable by the laws of this country. It's one thing to respect cultures and religious views but quite another to say it's o.k. to chop off a hand. So I am guessing, and I will fully admit I don't know how they operate, they can't 'fully' carry out punishments on those found guilty.

mich77 yes we do, but it has always been made clear that the law of the land always takes precedence. The two things are not incompatible.

Are you aware that we do support muslim belief systems and many others in the UK?

We have 30 Sharia courts/councils operating in the UK

Yes agree with your comments but now confirmed that IS has claimed responsibility and 4 suspects who may be connected arrested.

Carolpaint and monica I agree with your posts, nothing definite on why he did it, but we know he was angry at the world in general.

ISIL have been known to claim responsibility for deeds they had no connection with. I will wait until the French government and police make a statement. In the meanwhile no onen should attribute motives and certainly not use as yet unproven motives to make wild generalisiations about immigrants or muslims.

I apologise for using a bad analogy, but thank you Jalima for making all clear.

Jalima speaking for Monica I think she meant Christopher Jefferies.
I realise what M0nica meant, breeze, that she meant we should not jump to conclusions, but just wanted to set the record straight re Joanna's boyfriend, who was completely innocent too.