Toulouse attack - Confront hate crimes

Few things are as difficult to understand as hate crimes, especially those inflicted on strangers for no reason other than their religion, nationality, political ambitions or sexual orientation.

Yesterday’s deliberate but random murder of a rabbi and his two sons, as well as another child in front of their Toulouse school, reminds us of the terrible consequences of anti-semitism in recent history.

Surely those lessons were so profound as to make it impossible to believe that some people still hold such views.

The scar inflicted on the Jewish people by history runs so deep that the security presence was immediately increased at Jewish schools all across France.

Similar precautions are probably in place in other European countries.

The diversity of our world is one of its great charms and strengths so it is obligatory for all civilised societies to protect and celebrate those differences.

Yesterday’s murders challenge that obligation.