The Swiss have learned that their traditional neutrality, which has kept them safe from centuries of European wars, will not have the same deterrent value in a war against Islamofascist terrorism. Their federal police have reversed previous assessments of the risk to the nation from terrorism and declared Switzerland a "jihadi field of operation":

For centuries, this Alpine nation has successfully relied on a strict policy of political neutrality to insulate it from the wars, invasions and revolutions that have raged outside its borders. These days, a new threat has emerged: one from within.

As they have elsewhere in Europe, Islamic radicals are making inroads in Switzerland. Last month, Swiss officials announced the arrests of a dozen suspects who allegedly conspired to shoot down an Israeli airliner flying from Geneva to Tel Aviv. In a related case, a North African man has been charged with organizing a plot from Swiss soil to blow up the Spanish supreme court in Madrid.

For years, even after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Swiss officials assumed that their country was one of the last places Islamic radicals would look to attack. Long considered a slice of neutral territory in a world full of conflicts, Switzerland trades on its status as home to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other diplomatic institutions.

As the global jihad movement becomes more decentralized and fragmented, however, Swiss security officials are warning that their country could become a target.

In an intelligence report completed in May, the Swiss Federal Police reversed previous assessments that the domestic risk of terrorism was nearly nonexistent. The report concluded that Switzerland had become "a jihadi field of operation" and predicted that terrorist attacks were "an increasing possibility."

For years, the Swiss concentrated their anti-terrorism efforts on their legendary, secretive banking system, assuming that terrorists would exploit their tough laws on privacy to move funds to operational cells elsewhere. However, the plot against Israel's airline involved Swiss residents, not just travelers passing through the country. That raises concerns about homegrown jihadis, an issue when 5% of the nation's population is Muslim.

Switzerland claims that it has less of a problem with assimilating its Muslim minority than its neighbors France and Germany. However, that minority can still act in concert, even somewhat unwittingly, with foreign terrorists to create mayhem. One plot uncovered in Spain had connected a bombing conspiracy to a Muslim fanatic in Zurich who had received asylum from the unwitting Swiss. He not only funneled money to the Spanish jihadis, he also had significant involvement in the plot against the Israeli airliner.

The Swiss recently revealed that their "neutrality" in World War II actually was nothing more than a cover for collaboration with the Nazis as a price for avoiding German occupation. They have another opportunity to confront evil rather than cling to a so-called neutrality that will eventually have to resemble dhimmitude. So far, it looks like the Swiss have made the correct choice.

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry is

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Neutrality Is No Defense:

» Web Reconnaissance for 07/21/2006 from The Thunder Run
A short look at what’s out there that might draw your attention. [Read More]

Tracked on July 21, 2006 9:58 AM