New York, 11 September 2001; Madrid, 11 March 2004; London, 7 July 2007; Mumbai, 26-29 November 2008; Nairobi, 21 September 2013; Paris, 13 November 2015 – and now Brussels, 22 March 2016. These are among the “days of infamy” when terrorists have indiscriminately slaughtered innocent civilians who were going about their daily lives. All such events take their particular horror from the way in which normal civilised human life is plunged into the midst of carnage and slaughter. Whether in office block, airline terminal, city street, shopping mall, London bus, metro or suburban railway carriage, death is a heart-beat away from everyone, and nowhere is ever completely safe.

A terrorist bomb brings death but it also brings disorder, a sense that the fabric of civilised life itself has been torn asunder and ordinary people have been rendered helpless. It is at such time that civilisation is seen at its most fragile. And the human beings who executed such devastation are its bitterest foes. The sudden death and pain they bring is merely their chosen instrument. Their aim is to destroy the established cohesion of society, so that neighbours – in desperation, no longer knowing whom to trust, no longer feeling protected – turn on each other.