EVENTS in Rouen add another ghastly chapter to the never ending story of Islamic fundamentalism’s assault on the West and its values.

A hideous ideology preying on the imbecilic to carry out its atrocities it will in truth always have the ability to attack quickly and with maximum horror against societies which value freedom.

Those simple-minded fools promised martyrdom will often be able to surprise us because of the willingness to plumb new depths of depravity in their actions.

But let us be clear.

They can never win.

For to win they need to convince the millions of us that their way of life and values are worth following.

And we are never going to let that happen.

What they can do is seek to turn us on each other, provoke responses that do not strike at the core of this cancer but at others who might be persuaded that such actions prove the madmen right in their thoughts of the West.

That is not the same as saying our search for justice should not be swift, resolute and profound.

It is simply to say that standing up for our freedoms, of thought, ideas, association, can be made manifest in many different ways.

There are plenty of people, one of the US presidential candidates for instance, selling simple solutions to the complex problems the world increasingly faces at the moment.

But a rudimentary knowledge of modern history teaches us where that leads.

These are febrile times but standing shoulder to shoulder with each other and being resolute in our responses to threats to our ways of life will see us through.