Tea at Trianon: The Isis Threat is Returning to Europe

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, August 23, 2025

The Isis Threat is Returning to Europe

From Kyle Orton at UnHerd:

Since the final destruction of the Islamic State’s “caliphate” more than six years ago, the group has struggled to rebuild. This is especially true of its former stronghold in Iraq, where Isis operations are notably down. While the group has perpetrated a number of successful attacks in Syria, notably against a church in June, the country’s new regime under Ahmed al-Sharaa has made efforts to crack down on terrorist activity. Meanwhile, the Americans remain on the scene and conduct occasional raids against the leadership, including one this week that killed a senior Isis member.

Yet Isis is a unified global organisation, with nodes — or “provinces” (wilayat), as it calls them. Reports this week have highlighted a strengthened recruitment drive in Africa, with a facilitation network in South Africa and Zambia which raises funds and directs fighters around the continent. In the northern breakaway zones of Somalia, Isis’s crucial Al-Karrar Office collects and distributes funds to active theatres.

Local Somali efforts, with US assistance, have disrupted Al-Karrar to some degree, but it remains able to finance the group in Afghanistan — a concrete example of the global integration of Isis’s jihad. The most recent United Nations report compiling intelligence from member states describes Isis’s presence in Afghanistan as “the most serious threat, both regionally and internationally”. In a country run by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, this is notable.

From the Sahel to Southern Africa, Isis has combined devastating acts of terrorism with an increasingly sophisticated insurgency that is overwhelming local states. This clears the way for the group to govern territory. But what does this mean for Europe? (Read more.)