We don't need another "war on terror", we need a policy change

Tributes to the victims in Republic Square. Demotix/ Nesrine Cheikh Ali. All rights reserved.As the world still mourns Paris, a new war on terror is being declared. French President Francois Hollande, on the day after the attacks, spoke of an “act of war” and declared a state of emergency. For the French opposition this was not enough: Former President Nicholas Sarkozy declared he would act tougher than his successor and right wing icon Marine Le Pen called, once more, for stopping immigration to France.

Since then, the race for the harshest verbal reaction to the ISIS attacks is on.

Pope Francis spoke of the “Third World War”, while Secretary of State Kerry called ISIS terrorists “psychopathic monsters”. Europe’s rising right wing extremists abuse the horrific attacks in their populist campaign against immigrants; those same immigrants fleeing from ISIS terror in Syria and Iraq and other war zones. In Hungary, right wing Prime Minister Victor Orbán also implied it is time to stop receiving immigrants while he sees “Europe’s existence is at stake”, which was echoed in Germany by leaders from Bavarian’s right wing party CSU and the new Neonazi-backed AfD.