Barbara Amiel nails the Spanish tragedy in the Telegraph (thanks to Nicolei). She, unlike most commentators, is actually listening to what the radical Muslims are saying:
Among terrorists, the Islamists represent the most formidable challenge. Theirs is a culture from another era – and not a good one. Danny Kaye, in his film of Franz Werfel’s Jacobowsky and the Colonel gave us a benign view of such a clash when he told the inflexible, down-on-his-luck European nobleman that “you have the finest mind of the 12th century”. Madrid is what happens when the worst minds of the darkest ages confront modern times.
It is possible that Spain would not have had the explosions at this time if it had stayed on the sidelines in the war against Saddam. Their innocent people, now dead or wounded, blinded and crippled, might have been spared till next month or next year as the acolytes of bin Laden concentrated first on the more visible allies of the Great Satan America. Or not, for Islamists have a special issue with Spain. One should remember the words of bin Laden, who in October 2001 spoke of the “tragedy in Andalusia”, a reference to the final ending of the great Muslim advance in the Iberian peninsula by the Moors.
By their own mad statements, the Islamists will not be content until all the lands they believe belong to the Muslim world are free of the infidel and the “humiliation of 80 years ago” is reversed, meaning the reversal of the end of the Ottoman Empire. Given their rather bloody interpretation of the command of the Koran to spread the word to all infidels, unless we pull ourselves together we shall find ourselves spread all over streets and railway lines. In the fight against Satan, it is traditional to have a deity onside. Let’s pray by all means – and then pass the ammunition.