Terrorism once seemed to serve a purpose, albeit an awful one. Osama bin Laden was evil but rational: The most effective way to attack a military superpower for its interventionist policies is to strike civilians.
However, the latest assaults in France, shooting a priest and knifing three people in a church, are as close to pointless as one can imagine. The acts do not even pretend to defend Islam, and they convince no one of the faith. At least there was a hint of purpose — entirely evil, of course — in the beheading of a teacher last month, as an act of revenge for having shown his students a caustic cartoon of Mohammed.
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