An estimated 5,000 members of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group are currently living in the countries of the European Union. The revelation was made at a conference called the European Security Policy in the Belgian capital, Brussels, on Wednesday, where it was also revealed that the vast majority of the Takfiri terrorists living in the EU are themselves European citizens. Experts at the conference discussed the EU’s failed security police, saying the terrorists, who are scattered all across the 28-member bloc, have ambitions to carry out more deadly attacks on European soil.

The conference criticized the lack of a coordinated approach to tackling terrorism and poor levels of intelligence sharing among EU countries. “These threats, in Europe at least, stem from dysfunctional and difficult domestic politics, more than they stem from external sources,” said Jeremy Shapiro (pictured below), the research director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Stressing the need for securing the borders of EU countries, former EU Commissioner Michel Barnier said at the conference that the refugee crisis faced by Europe could potentially be exploited by the terrorists who might enter the bloc disguised as asylum seekers.

“There are about 250,000 Syrians in Libya waiting for the opportunity to cross the sea and about 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey without mentioning those in Lebanon and Jordan, so it is not over,” Barnier said. Large numbers of refugees fleeing from conflict zones in the Middle East and Africa have been arriving in Europe in search of a better life. Most of them take sea routes to the external borders of the EU.

Meanwhile, European states have been seeing a number of their citizens attempting to join terrorist groups in the Middle East over the past few years. In February, the EU’s criminal intelligence agency, Europol, said some 30,000 militants from over 100 countries have reportedly traveled to Syria and Iraq since 2011 to join the ranks of Takfiri terrorist groups.

The European terrorists can potentially return to their home countries, battle-hardened, to carry out attacks there. Back in November last year, Daesh launched a series of attacks in the French capital of Paris, killing a total of 130 people. Investigations into the incident revealed that the perpetrators were mostly Belgium-based.

In March, two bomb attacks in Brussels killed at least 14 people and left nearly 100 people wounded, while a separate bombing in a metro station killed around 20 people and injured about 100 others. Belgium, home to the main institutions of the European Union and the NATO headquarters, has been viewed as the prime source of recruitment for Daesh in Europe. Daesh terrorists are mainly operating in Syria and its eastern neighbor, Iraq.

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President Barack Obama has nominated the first-ever Muslim American to serve as a federal judge in the US capital, according to a report. Abid Riaz Qureshi, a partner in a Washington law firm, was nominated to the US District Court for the District of Columbia, The Huffington Post reported on Tuesday.

“I am pleased to nominate Mr. Qureshi to serve on the United States District Court bench,” Obama said in a statement. “I am confident he will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice.”

Muslim rights advocates hailed the historic nomination. “A judiciary that reflects the rich diversity of our nation helps ensure the fair and just administration of the law, and it is vital for American Muslims to be included,” Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, a legal advocacy organization, told The Post.

However, it is unlikely that Qureshi’s nomination will be confirmed before Obama leaves office in January. Senate Republicans have promised not to hold any hearings on Obama’s nominees since he picked Judge Merrick Garland to serve in the US Supreme Court in March.

That nomination was intended to replace late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier this year. Qureshi’s nomination comes amid a particularly tense presidential election campaign in which anti-Muslim rhetoric has been a dominating theme.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has made a series of controversial policy proposals on how the US should treat Muslims, including banning Muslims entering the country and establishing a database to register all Muslims. The New York businessman has also suggested that a Muslim judge could be unfit for the job.

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