The spread of terror and states of emergency

The cancellation of the football match between the Netherlands and Germany in Hannover on Nov. 17 was something rare, if not unique. It perhaps marked the first time that not only a city, but an entire nation - and actually the whole of Europe - was terrorized without an actual act of terrorism taking place.

The German authorities' move to bring life to a halt until they were sure that the imminent threat was over was probably the right thing to do, once they had reasonable evidence showing the possibility of a terrorist attack following the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) Paris strike on Nov. 13, killing 129 people.
ISIL has activated the oldest and the worst weapon of all time: Fear.

On the morning after the abandoned match, Nov. 18, the French security forces cornered two suspected ISIL militants in a northern suburb of Paris. After a clash lasting seven hours, one of the militants reportedly blew himself up along with the other. The picture is familiar: On Nov. 15 a suspected ISIL militant (who was on the Turkish police's wanted list in relation to the Ankara bombing of Oct. 10, in which 102 people were killed) also blew himself up after he understood that there was no way to escape.

French President François Hollande has asked parliament to declare a three-month state of emergency. In yesterday's clash with ISIL militants, the government called on military units to help the police, and French military carried out a police operation in a heavily-populated Parisian suburb. The French government has also reportedly asked Twitter and Facebook to block pictures of the ISIL attacks, worried that they could further escalate fear in society. 

Such measures are a matter of criticism in Turkey when applied by Ankara....