One of the most painful lessons the Europeans have learned from the terror attacks in Madrid and London, as well as from the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh is that the threat of terror is already in their midst.
They say Muslim communities throughout Europe are becoming more and more extreme, and they are planning their next strike, more-or-less unfettered.
Read a selection of Ynetnews' commentators about Europes' terror threat
One senior German politician warned this week of an Islamic cell he called "fanatic," planning more attacks in hiding.
"In Germany there are 3,000-5,000 Islamist activists who are planning to use violence, possibly even suicide attacks," said Guenther Beckstein, a likely candidate to become Germany's next interior minister.
Perhaps Beckstein was speaking in the heat of a close election campaign, but other senior security officials around the continent told Ynet this week there is a kernel of truth in Beckstein's claim.
"Al-Qaeda's outlook is becoming fashionable amongst young Muslims around the world… and giving them incentive to create terror cells and to carry out terror attacks," said Ernst Orlau, a senior official in Germany's intelligence community and a negotiator for Israel's 2004 hostage exchange with Hizbullah.
Inside job: London attack (Photo: AFP
He said the attacks in London and Madrid were local initiatives carried out by local activist cells, with no foreign planning aid or instruction.
"This fact is very worrying to us because it makes terrorist activity much harder to identify and foil," Orlau told an anti-terror conference at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya earlier this month.
To Iraq and back
Orlau also spoke about another phenomenon he said was even more worrying: a steady flow of European Muslims traveling to Iraq to join the jihad against the Americans, then coming "home" to plan attacks.
"We don't know how many are really coming back to Europe, but it's only got to be a few to plan and carry out an attack," he said.
"This is one of the most worrying issues we are facing at the moment," he said.
"The war in Iraq is being used as an engine to drive terror activities in Europe at this time," he said. "We must ask ourselves whether European Muslims could adopt the theology of al-Qaeda, and if so, there could be a real threat to German targets soon," said Orlau.