Western societies should do more to remember the victims of terrorism, the president of the Ayaan Hirsi Ali Foundation has argued in a piece commemorating a decade since the murder of Catholic priest, Father Jacques Hamel.
Fr Hamel was attacked and killed during mass in a Normandy church 10 years ago by two Muslim men pledging allegiance to ISIS.
Trey Dimsdale said, in a piece for Restoring the West, that Islamist terrorist attacks “are increasingly treated as isolated crimes rather than attacks on the moral confidence of Western civilization".
"The victims are briefly mourned before fading before public memory. That collective amnesia weakens our ability to recognize the ideological nature of the threat and respond with the seriousness it demands," he said.
Remembering those killed is not only about honouring the dead, Dimsdale argued, but serves to protect and strengthen society: “A civilization that cannot remember those murdered because they embodied its values, or simply lived within its cultural inheritance, gradually loses the confidence to defend either.”
Dimsdale lamented the fact that secular society and institutions have few mechanisms by which they can remember those killed by terrorist violence. He contrasted this with the Catholic Church, whose late Pope Francis declared Father Hamel to be a martyr and permitted the beatification process to begin.
Father Hamel is currently recognised by the Catholic Church as a “Servant of God”, the first step on the path to sainthood.
Dimsdale pointed out that while the Catholic Church remembers Father Hamel, even a decade after his murder, much of society struggles to name even one victim of terror attacks, even when the attack was recent.
He used the example of Joan of Arc, who despite being burned at the stake for heresy, was eventually recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church. In France at least, Joan is not just a religious figure, but a symbol of civic and national identity.
In a recent post on X, French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the martyred priest, saying, “We do not forget Father Jacques Hamel. Ten years ago today, he was cowardly murdered by two Islamist terrorists, targeted because he embodied the refusal of hatred, fraternity, and hope.
“To his loved ones, to his parishioners and all the residents of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, to the Catholics of France, I extend the Nation’s fraternal and steadfast salute.
"His memory compels us. It compels us to relentlessly defend the freedom of conscience that the Republic guarantees and protects. In the face of Islamist terrorism, France remains united. Faithful to what defines her. Resolute in yielding nothing to those who seek to divide us.”
