Now it is Germany's turn.

[Workingman]

I wonder what Muttie Merkel is thinking this morning.

Köln at Christmas. The burning down of migrant centres, some by the migrants themselves. The rise of AFD. Würzburg. München. All her chickens coming home to roost.

With a bit of luck the Germans will act peaceably but give her the finger in the upcoming elections.

[Kate1933]

Frightening Frank, and she was the one who said we should take our share.. intelligence seems pretty good here but it can never be good enough.

[TheOstrich]

It seems to be emerging that this was very much a home-grown terrorism incident, (and one that had been meticulously planned), by a part-Iranian German teenager, not a recent immigrant.

Lot more to the causes of this than just ISIS terrorism - community dis-cohesion / non-integration, lack of employment opportunity ..... be interesting to see if he was "radicalised by Islam" or not.

[Kate1933]

Supposedly had mental health problems.

[Diflower]

He'd been living there 'a few years'.
People questioned their gun laws, but it was not a legally bought gun, the serial no. had been filed off...
Also emerging that he lured people by posting on fb that the branch of MacDonalds was giving away free food at a certain time.

[Kaz]

It seems this young man had huge mental problems, and that all of the recent incidents sparked something off in him. I don't see how any state can legislate to prevent such incidents

[Suff]

One incident no Kaz, but shooting bombing and a knife attack? This is only going to get worse.

The survivors that we took from the camps in Syria itself needed both physical and mental treatment. War is a horiffic thing and civilians are simply not prepared to deal with it.

These events are going to cecome more numerous and more deadly. The response from the German security services is going to become more swift and more deadly.

Innocents are goign to be hurt more and more. I don't think Germany is prepared for the time bomb imported into the country and the backlash is going to cause quite a lot of problems.

[cromwell]

The Germans are still in that phase where you get a warm fuzzy feeling about "helping these poor people". It is going to take a few more bombings / shootings / stabbings / suicide bombers before the penny drops with them that they have really, really put their foot in it.

If that day ever comes there will be a backlash. But don't forget that the people who wanted and encouraged this invasion are the same type of people who control what goes in the paper and on the TV news; they will try and minimise what is going on for as long as they can whilst shouting "Racist, Fascist" at anyone who disagrees with them. The power of the media to influence how people think is strong.

[Workingman]

The power of the media to influence how people think is strong.

But with the rise of social media and messaging apps it is not as influential as those within would like it to be. Sky News has stopped taking comments on its articles. The BBC only opens up comments on bland topics; and other places pre-moderate comments so as not to publish those breaking house rules.

It is also the case that throwing out the racist/fascist/xenophobe/bigot insults by the self-proclaimed "right (correct) thinking" brigades to stifle debate no longer works. When they get challenged they slope away crying.

[cromwell]

The power of the media to influence how people think is strong.

But with the rise of social media and messaging apps it is not as influential as those within would like it to be. Sky News has stopped taking comments on its articles. The BBC only opens up comments on bland topics; and other places pre-moderate comments so as not to publish those breaking house rules.

This is true. To be fair to the Guardian they still allow comment on some articles, though they must be disappointed that increasingly the best rated comments are those that oppose the Guardian standpoint!