We have to do the opposite of what they want us to do.

Not live in fear, not change our way of life, not turn upon each other. These spectacular attacks and the unceasing coverage of their aftermath, coupled with an avalanche of punditry, convinces us that we are threatened by a horde of kill-crazy fanatics. Not so. We are threatened by a relatively small number of kill-crazy fanatics and are still far more likely to be killed in a random car accident than by a jihadist.

We should pay an increased attention to the circles which these murderers frequent. Be it internet chat rooms, Facebook pages or places of worship where a radical disourse is encouraged, we have to know the enemy. One of our most precious rights is our freedom of speech, and while we must absolutely not put limits on it, it doesn't mean that the police can't listen to what we're saying in public, read what we write on the net, and act accordingly. (And if it's too difficult to read posts in Arabic, then hire more Arab-speaking policemen, for crying out loud).

We should try and defuse the arguments that djihadists put forward to recruit more young people. Refuse to endorse the idea that there is a clash of civilization between Islam and the west (and feel free to replace "Islam", in this particular case, by any other denomination or creed). We in the west live in liberal, open and secular societies; societies that claim that citizens are all equal, be they men, women, hetero, gay, pink, beige, brown, black, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Moslem, conservative, left-wing, vegetarian, philatelist or trekkie. This plurality is our strength, and we must make it clear that we will not turn our back on it because a small and violent group decides that they don't like it. Nor will we because a bunch of scaredy-cats are afraid of brown people.

We should call the terrorist losers, the way Trump just did. We really must cease to make them sound like scary enemy combatants, because it gives them a certain prestige amongst like-minded people. They are pitiful losers, so low on the scale of personal success that their only way to feel good about themselves is by destroying their own life and hurting innocents. They are not scary like a tiger in the jungle is; they are scary the way dog poo on the sidewalk is.

Plus, they will lose. In fact, they've already lost. Our societies are, by and large, increasingly liberal. I'm sure the trend will continue, despite the occasional hiccup of history. Insisting that things were better in the sixth century will not stop our common progress.