Every now and then something happens which is so horrible that it can only be described as 'shocking'.

Yesterday's atrocity in the Parisian offices of satirical magazine 'Charlie Hebdo', and the footage of the prone French policeman pleading for his life before being shot in the head by the Islamic gunman is undeniably shocking. But it is not surprising.

Europe, and the West in general, has been agonising for years over the best way to accommodate its Muslim populations. And these efforts have failed. Whether it's the burka, ignoring the cruelty of halal meat production, Islamic faith schools, self-censorship or zealous prosecutions of the new secular sin of 'Islamophobia', the depressing truth is that these various policies of appeasement and accommodation have created a climate where the only surprise about the attack on this magazine is that it took until now for it to happen.

Unlike most publications in Europe, 'Charlie Hebdo' has a long history of offending delicate Muslim sensibilities. In fact, it has a long history of offending everybody's sensibilities which, after all, is what a satirical magazine is meant to do.

The publication first came to attention when its offices were fire-bombed in 2011 after it published a special edition proclaiming Mohammed as its 'guest editor', while it was also one of the few organs which reprinted the infamous 'Danish cartoons' in 2008, which led to riots and murders by Muslims who were outraged that their so-called 'religion of peace' had been linked to violence.

There is an argument that the editor, Stephane Charbonnier, who was murdered yesterday, and the cartoonists who were also among the 12 deaths, somehow brought this act of savagery on themselves.

Only in the debate about Muslim 'offence' is the victim seen as responsible for their attack, as if Islam is so protected and precious that anyone who mocks it deserves to be killed and can't complain when they're murdered.

How ironic that we teach our children to stand up to bullies while at the same time we see nothing untoward in acceding to unreasonable, intolerant Islamic demands - all in the name of a spurious form of tolerance and, of course, that great failed experiment of the last 30 years, multiculturalism.

Compare the kid-glove treatment of Muslims in the media to how, for example, the Catholic Church is covered. As a long-standing critic of what I consider to be the Church's malign and baleful influence in this country, I am also uncomfortable with the fact that there are things I would be allowed to say about Christian fundamentalists which would never be tolerated if the same was said about Muslims. How did we allow ourselves to become so craven? This pan-Western fear of being described as 'Islamophobic', or the more visceral and very real threat of being killed for expressing a sentiment that offends Muslim extremists, has resulted in a vacuum; the only place in the vibrant arena of public debate where a dark shroud has been placed, making it impossible to have a reasonable debate about what values are acceptable in Western culture.

Yesterday's attack wasn't just an attack on a small satirical magazine. It was an attack on enlightenment, freedom of expression, the right to offend and, crucially, the right to exist without being cowed by people who view Europe as enemy lands which must be drawn into a global Caliphate. It was, to put it simply, an attack on all of us.

In a way, the blame for this rests not solely on the shoulders of the gunmen, but on the Western policies of appeasing Islamic grievance - real and imagined - and failing to hold all citizens to the same standards. After all, we rightly condemn the IRA, or those deranged US pro-lifers who murder abortion providers, and we know we can denounce these atrocities safe in the knowledge that our disgust will not be deliberately misrepresented as bigotry.

Yet even as the muzzles of the AK-47s which killed 12 people were still cooling, liberal activists across Europe were playing down the Islamic link and trying to portray it as the act of madmen or, to use that loathsome, glamorous cliché, 'lone wolves'.

Typically, one Irish 'anti-racism' group was quick to issue a statement yesterday which said: "In the aftermath of the tragic killing of 12 people today at the offices of the 'Charlie Hebdo' newspaper in Paris, we would caution against the anticipated impulse by media and commentators to automatically seek condemnation of the atrocity by representatives of the 'Muslim Community'…the perpetrators should not be defined as 'Muslims'…we do not hold 'Christians' to account for the Oklahoma bombings or for the Waco massacre, nor do we expect Christian representatives to distance themselves from these atrocities."

That single, muddled statement is a perfect example of how we are sleep-walking into cultural suicide and have nobody to blame but ourselves. To suggest that this is 'tragic', as the statement does, is to imply that it was an accident. It wasn't.

Similarly, the notion that the killers shouldn't be called 'Muslims' makes no sense because they are clearly recorded on tape saying they were doing it in 'defence' of their prophet's hurt feelings.

This approach is not just pathetically feeble, it is also deliberately wrong-headed. It is, in fact, as patently counter-intuitive as saying that the people responsible for the Birmingham pub bombings had nothing to do with Irish Republicanism and shouldn't be called Republicans.

Nobody in their right mind is now calling for the repatriation of Muslims or retaliation against them. Few of us believe that the ordinary Muslim who wants to make a better life for themselves should be blamed for what happened yesterday. After all, Muslims are also victims of Islamic terror.

The fact that such an obvious fact has to be pointed out is because the useless idiots of the Left have so polluted the debate with loaded terms that most people now simply say nothing for fear of being attacked by the mob. Or worse.

That's why Islamic extremists have the upper hand. Simply put, they want it more than we do and they believe in their cause, they aren't constantly plagued by the self-loathing and cowardice of the Western chattering classes who would rather live under Sharia law than be accused of a thought crime.

How many times must war be declared on our way of life before we take our head out of the sands?

How many more excuses about 'a tiny minority' of 'people who aren't really Muslims' will we have to listen to? I've spoken to Muslim extremists in Ireland who state that, actually, they are the true Muslims and their peaceful brethren are the ones who are fake.

But, as philosophically fascinating as these theological debates may be, the fact remains that people are killing other people and they are shouting 'Allahu Akbar' as they do so.

I doubt the French police officer who pleaded vainly for his life before being shot in the head wondered about whether his killer was a 'real' Muslim or not.

Ali Selim of the Clonskeagh mosque is, I'm sure, a decent man but when contacted by 4FM yesterday he warned that he would report anyone who retweets a cartoon of Mohammed to the gardai.

So, here was a chance for Ireland's most well-known Muslim commentator to express his shock and disgust at the events of yesterday; here was a chance to actually show a humane side of political Islam, and instead he spoke of his readiness to prosecute Irish people for a Tweet.

So what can we do?

I fear the horse has already bolted but we must be prepared to stand up and say that we won't be bullied. We won't kowtow to their beliefs.

We must be defiant and refuse to be told what to think or say. Remember, no ideology is above scrutiny or immune from criticism.

We must be prepared to finally and publicly recognise that this virulent and violently expansionist form of Islam is not so much a religion as a political ideology, one that is the greatest existential threat this part of the world has faced since the end of the Cold War and one which has already claimed more lives on Western soil than the Cold War ever did. That's for the benefit of everyone, Muslim and kafir alike.

It would be nice to finish on a hopeful, optimistic note. But there isn't one.

By the way, Mr Selim, I've retweeted that cartoon.

Irish Independent