Kameel Majdali's Road Ahead

It was meant to be a fun and relaxing night in the ‘City of Lights.’ It was Friday night, 13 November 2015. People were dining out, attending a sports event, and also a concert. It was around 9:00 PM. Like the notorious attacks seven years ago, where 10 men from a boat terrorised and paralysed the city of Mumbai, Paris came under a well-planned, simultaneous series of attacks: La Belle Equipe: 19 dead by shooting; Le Carillon Bar & Le Petit Cambodge Restaurant: 12 dead by guns; La Casa Nostra Restaurant: 5 dead by gunfire; Stade de France, where 80,000 gathered to watch France v. Germany: explosion outside, 3 attackers dead; Batacian Concert Hall: several gunmen killed 80 dead. Death toll so far: 127 dead. The Islamic State has claimed credit for these attacks which are in retaliation of France’s participation in the Allied bombing of IS positions in Syria. Initial assessments say that these are jihadis who have returned back to France after trainin...

I saw them with my own eyes. We were on the highway between Athens in the south and Thessaloniki to the north. At one point, we stopped to have a break. And there we saw them: They were milling around the Greek rest stop for buses: standing, sitting, smoking, and eating. Though there were families present, many were young men. Everyone had a cell phone. Arabic was often heard, though a South Asian language may have been detected, too. They had come from the Greek islands to Athens, now they paid 50 euros per person to be driven from the Greek capital to the northern border. From there, they planned to make their way to the rest of Europe. Who were these people? They are part of the biggest news story of the year. Hundreds of thousands of migrants are flooding into Europe, with many having Germany and Scandinavia in mind. What does this mean for the continent and the world? Before proceeding, the word ‘migrant’ is being used to denote someone on the move, be they a ref...