Berlin

The suspect has been shot dead in Italy , BBC News

Yes went down shouting "Alluha Akbar" such a sacrilege to utter "God is great" while trying to kill people.

This will surely be the new method of terrorism now as it very easy to do and the cowardly driver can escape by jumping out . What is wrong with these people who kill in the name of their `god`.

We'll never be able to comprehend, will we, but presumably as well as believing it's their god's will and they'll be rewarded if they die a martyr's death, they have the ability to shut off all emotion as far as their victims are concerned. Even little children and babies...

De-humanising the enemy is how soldiers are trained and how they survive- including the bombing of Dresden (a lot more people died that night- including babies and children, and grannies).

Who does the 'they' apply to- Muslims- or the very few who commit those atrocities- who are generally lost souls, not very religious and brain washed- with no understanding of the Koran at all.

It seems obvious to me that posters were talking about terrorists, not Muslims.

Absolutely Maggiemaybe, terrorists rather than the ordinary Muslim neighbours we share. I live in a town with a large Muslim population. I was in the supermarket earlier when given a "free gift from Sainsburys' - it was a good gift for children, my husband asked the member of staff doing the distribution, are you father Christmas then? Yes, he replied, I'm the Asian version and we all smiled. We have a new family member who is Muslim, both the staff who delivered my on line order at a large local store were Muslim - born here, so local accents but both said their children loved the Christmas celebrations from school so they'd be having a special meal and gifts on Christmas day. Thank heavens for ordinary folks. One of these 3 people hugged me and talked about how important it is that we celebrate and recognise each others traditions while the world is in such a dreadful place.

I don't believe its at all helpful to suggest that posters who express anger or distress about the actions of the murderer in Berlin may be unable to recognise he isn't typical of the Muslim population. Or to comment that soldiers are taught to dehumanise the enemy and link that to Dresden. Yes it was an atrocity but it came on top of so many atrocities. I don't seek to excuse it by the way but to acknowledge the horrors in WW2 alongside the horrors we live with now. Well, I'm lucky to live in the UK where I feel very safe and very fortunate. I know we could experience an atrocity at any moment. I lived through the IRA campaign, live half an hour from Manchester which was bombed and half an hour from Warrington, where 2 children were murdered by the IRA.

Hive you not read the thread granjura? It is so obvious posters are talking about terrorists,

Christians in the Middle East also use 'Alluha Akbar', but it's become an expression to strike fear.

I am in no way way condoning what this man did, but I can understand why he did it.

He came from a poor Tunisian family. The 'Arab Spring' caused all sorts of turmoil in the Middle East and this man wanted a better life, just like most people. It would appear that at this stage, he wasn't particularly religious. As a teenager, he drank alcohol, took drugs and was a bit of a bad character - not so very different from many British teenagers.

He got himself into trouble in Tunisia (where there's an outstanding conviction), found himself an illegal passage to Italy, where he became involved in criminal activity. At some stage, he was radicalised. It would have been relatively easy to do. His future seemed bleak and he would have been vulnerable to anybody who offered him some kind of future, even if it was in the afterlife.

Since leaving Tunisia, he had six years of a dysfunctional life. Nobody really cared what happened to him. Tell me, honestly, that any young men you know wouldn't have been vulnerable to propaganda in those circumstances.

I think that there needs to be a much greater understanding of what drives people to extremism before it can be defeated.

There was a discussion on the radio where someone was pointing out how many of the young men involved in these mainland attacks are Tunisian, disaffected petty criminals often with a history of drug and alcohol dependency, not confirmed and convinced Islamists. Except from the importance of being Tunisian, just as DD describes, So part of the answer must lie specifically lie in Tunisia; its government and culture.

I hope he rots in hell.

Have you seen daphnedill's post? It was a good post.

@MOnica

Tunisia is usually recognised as the most enlightened of all the Middle East/North African countries. It has a a secular constitution and a fragile democracy. Nevertheless, it has a huge number of people signing up to IS. So what's going wrong?

I think we really need to understand what's happening at ground level, before we can stop terrorism.

I'm blushing, Ankers.

A good Swiss name Anker, btw.

What do you mean by 'huge' proportionally to population- do you know.

Recent study in France show that many French estimate the % of Muslims in France to be up to 60% - when it is acutally 7.5%.

I think what is going wrong is meddling by the west daphnedill although Tunisia was supposed to be the one success of the Arab Spring, was it not, or am I getting

I meant to add that some do not want enlightenment for the masses or democracy.

Yes, good post daphnedill.

Decades ago North Africans and blacks would join forces against the police or the state, but now they are divided by Islamic politics. I don't think meddling by the west created this state of affairs.

So if the truck man left Tunisia over six years ago he must have been very young arriving in Italy. Young enough to turn his life round and make himself a good future? But no. Maybe receiving some of these people into a different culture doesn't work and actually makes them more resentful and disaffected.

I think in every society there are a group of young men who for a variety of reasons fail to thrive and fall into a marginalised group who turn to drugs and alcohol and then slip into petty crime to finance their lives. These young men are susceptible to the blandishments of organisations that offer simple nostrums and simple solutions to the problems of life.

That is why in England right wing racist organisations recruit mainly from young white men in this group, extreme Islamists recruit from this group within the Muslim community. It is why the IRA recruited so easily from the marginalised Irish catholics.

These organisations give these young men time and attention, some, like the Islamists and the IRA recruit them into an 'army'. Give them money and status. Our government needs to think more deeply about how to help these disaffected groups gain status and respect in their own eyes and the eyes of those around them. It needs to start in the schools but continue after they have left. Probably include focused work based training courses.

Jalima - can you tell me what you think the point is of having a thread showing horror ? Wouldn't you rather seek a solution?

I was saying to my husband tonight that in the 60s and 70s there was none of this terrorism - on TV you would see there was IRA trouble, because it was reported, between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland but nothing on the scale of this.

Could it not be Europe wasn't affected so little reporting of middle east and east?

West Germany had the Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Gang) throughout the 1970s. It's been claimed it was responsible for 34 deaths.

ETA, the Basque separatist movement, has been held responsible for 829 deaths (according to Google).

I agree with you, MOnica. There isn't a quick fix.

Lillie, How could he have turned his life round? He had a criminal record in Tunisia, had been in an Italian prison for three and a half years. It sounds as though he had no qualifications or experience. From what I've read, he had no family outside Tunisia to support him. He was in Italy (and later Germany) illegally.

He couldn't have just turned up for a job interview, because he would have had nothing on his CV. He couldn't have earned money legally, so he fell into crime and was obviously influenced by radicalists.

This was the reality before September 2015, when Merkel opened Germany's borders. At least, the refugees are now in Germany legally and don't have to hide from the authorities (unless they are there illegally, of course). The genuine asylum seekers do now, at least, have some state support, including language classes.