Pakistan? Iraq? Turkey? Might as well be, these days it’s Vienna.
The police presence around St. Stephen’s Cathedral is all the greater on Christmas Eve. Heavily armed police with submachine guns watch over anyone who enters the Vienna landmark. Occasionally individuals are fished out. Eleven police buses, including a Cobra vehicle and a bus with extended surveillance cameras, are parked on the forecourt; each vehicle has space for six security officers. From this point of view, dozens of police officers – most of them with protective vests and long guns – are guarding the area. An explosives dog is waiting to be deployed.
A police helicopter circles over the city center. There is no further progress at the Christmas market on Rathausplatz…
In the afternoon and evening hours, when the children’s mass and later the Christmas mass take place in St. Stephen’s Cathedral, entrance controls should be increased even further.
A number of Muslims were arrested for reportedly planning attacks on churches.
A swarm of migrants from the Muslim world flooded Europe and this is now the new normal and not just in Vienna.
The threat of terrorism is higher than it has been for a long time, says North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul. Nevertheless, one should not give up going to church at Christmas out of fear. The CDU politician appeals: “Celebrate Christmas.”
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul appealed to people not to forego visiting church at Christmas for fear of an attack. “Caution is the order of the day. We know: The threat of terrorism is higher than it has been for a long time and our Christian holiday rituals are of course also a target for Islamist terrorists,” the CDU politician told the German Press Agency in Düsseldorf on Sunday.
“But we are not defenseless. Our authorities use all their findings to protect us as best as possible. The measures in Cologne now show this,” emphasized Reul and added: “My appeal: go to church, celebrate Christmas. Fear is the currency of terrorists. We mustn’t add value to them.”
Fear is the currency of terrorists, but it’s not an unreasonable fear. The only way to deal with it is to do something about it. The alternative is to live with terror.
After all the security measures around Cologne Cathedral, Christmas mass with Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki took place on Christmas Eve
The 67-year-old thanked the security forces for their special and unexpected commitment over Christmas.
In the past two days, the police officers had “turned the cathedral upside down,” so to speak, making church services possible there, he said at the start of Christmas mass after midnight in the cathedral.
Those attending church services will continue to be screened before entering the church in the next few days
People don’t have to live this way. It’s a choice.
After the worrying news that there were arrests in Vienna due to planned attacks at Christmas, the Vienna FPÖ state party leader Dominik Nepp spoke out.
Nepp calls for an immediate change of course in migration policy. “We need to take tough action against Islamists and 2024 must be the year of mass deportation of illegal and criminal migrants. The left-wing politics of false tolerance is a danger to the life and limb of the peaceful population. People have the right to live here in security and peace.”
This is Christmas. This is Christmas under the shadow of Islam.