The jihadis' targets in Europe are depressingly repetitive: the Brussels metro, the Champs-Elysees in Paris (twice), tourist-filled bridges in London (twice) and a U.K. rock concert. And that's just the past few months.
The steady stream of attacks on centers of daily life have drawn pledges from Europeans not to let terrorists change how they live, but in ways large and small they already have.
There is a heightened awareness and quicker reactions, especially in the hardest-hit countries of France, Britain and Belgium, that would have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago.
In Brussels on Tuesday, a 36-year-old Moroccan man shouting "Allahu akbar!" set off a bomb among subway commuters. The bomb didn't detonate in full and a soldier shot him dead.
It was another Muslim, Mohamed Charfih, who demanded that the subway's doors be closed before the attacker could enter.
"I heard people on the platform shouting for help," he told the news site DH. He looked out and knew what he saw. "I screamed to close the doors immediately. I asked to get out of there as fast as possible and that everyone get down on the floor."
That reaction, blocking the door and fleeing, has become part of
official instructions on what to do in case of an attack in France. Signs have been posted in public areas and even schools showing people running, ducking beneath a window, or using heavy furniture as a barricade.
Tensions are high enough in central Paris that on Thursday the quick-response police unit reacted to a witness' phone call about a man wearing a sidearm by tackling him on the street, only to learn that he was a ranking member of the anti-terrorism squad, according to French media.
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