Perhaps we should put them all on an island and drop a bomb on it. But then that would make us the SOBs. Such is life.

I'm being simplistic but the horror of Paris generates simple emotions: despair and anger.

When people react, they fall back on ideologies and prejudices.

I'm told a caller to BBC's Any Answers on Saturday afternoon argued for the introduction of concentration camps and force-feeding pork to inmates.

I haven't dared look to see if anyone has Tweeted "this is why Europeans need a Second Amendment", but I'm sure they have.

Meanwhile, some of the far-Left blame the victim.

A post on the Stop The War website said that the West was "reaping" the whirlwind of its imperialist foreign policy. If in doubt, point the finger at Tony Blair.

Somewhere between inaction and overreaction sit the politicians.

There will be a lot of talk about "solidarity" in the next few days and that's a noble sentiment.

But what exactly did the last bout of solidarity, following the Hebdo attacks, achieve?

Not only did it fail to prevent another outrage but it didn't actually produce a coherent Western policy towards the Middle East. France is officially engaged in Syria but Britain is not. Russia and America are thought to be bombing different targets. The EU is falling apart over migration - and we can expect its open borders to shut.

What about French society itself? This is plainly a country struggling to come to terms with cultural change.

In his new novel, Submission, Michel Houellebecq imagines a future in which Catholics, socialists and Muslims unite to defeat a Front National presidency - and replace the republic with a proto-Caliphate. The much derided book now seems prescient: who doubts that Marine Le Pen will be a major political beneficiary of these attacks? Continue reading

• Tim Stanley is a historian, and columnist and leader writer for The Telegraph in London

Last week, Mr Foley's parents John and Diane Foley told media of their gratitude for the Pope's concern, expressed during a long phone call on August 21.

"Pope Francis was so dear because he is grieving himself, having just lost three members of his family and (with) his nephew critically ill," Mrs Foley said on NBC's "Today" show.

"Here in the midst of his tremendous grief, he took the time to call.

"Our whole family was there, one of our beloved priest friends . . . was there, my brother-in-law spoke in Spanish to him. He was just so kind."

The wife and two young children of the Pope's nephew, 35-year-old Emanuel Horacio Bergoglio, were killed in a car crash on August 19 in Argentina.

Bergoglio was critically injured.

John Foley said on the "Today" show that "we felt very comforted and supported" that the Pope offered his personal prayer.

On August 21, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi told the press that Pope Francis called to console the family for their loss and assure them of his prayers.

Passionist Fr Ciro Benedettini, assistant director of the Vatican press office, told reporters the next day that the conversation was "long and intense".

Pope Francis was particularly "struck by the faith" of the late journalist's mother, the spokesman said.

The Pope spoke with the parents through an interpreter.

"Pope Francis, like Jesus, loves, like Jim. He understood Jim's heart," Diane Foley said afterwards, referring to her son, who "was able to draw strength from prayer" during his capture.

She said love and compassion had drawn her son to cover the plight of the people in Syria, which has been embroiled in a violent conflict for the past several years.

The Foleys also said they were establishing a fund in their son's name and said they would continue to call for action from the international community.

"We must stand together," Diane Foley said.

"Good and love and all that is free in the world must be together to fight the evil and the hatred."

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• Reuters
• Image: Scottish Catholic Observer

The Islamists called for the reinstatement of Morsi, who is from the Muslim Brotherhood and was ousted by the military on July 3. Hundreds of Morsi's supporters were killed as police cleared the sit-in camps, and the others went on a rampage.

The Associated Press reported that the Islamists torched a Franciscan school in Bani Suef. The attack, supposedly to punish the school for giving an inappropriate education to Muslim children, lasted for six hours. The school has an equal number of Muslim and Christian pupils.

A mob of Islamists stormed the school, scaled the wall, looted money and valuables, vandalized the cross on the street gate and replace it with a black banner which looked like the flag of al-Qaeda, according to the school principal, Sister Manal.

"We are nuns. We rely on God and the angels to protect us," Sister Manal, who was with other staff, was quoted as saying. "At the end, they paraded us like prisoners of war and hurled abuse at us as they led us from one alley to another without telling us where they were taking us," she said.

A former teacher of the school, who is Muslim, came to their help. "I remembered her, her name is Saadiyah. She offered to take us in and said she can protect us since her son-in-law was a policeman. We accepted her offer," Manal said.

Sources

Christian Post

Catholic World Report

Catholic News Service

Image: Catholic World Report