Yesterday more than 30 people were killed at Zaventem Airport and Maelbeek Station, as Brussels became the latest target in Daesh's campaign of terror. Three separate blasts left a trail of destruction and dozens of people injured in what EU leaders have called an assault on "open and democratic society".
The bombings were the second such attack on a major European city in the past 6 months, after 130 people were murdered in Paris last November.
In the wake of such brutality, it is tempting to give in to the perverse fear and murder that is the Daesh brand. It is tempting to let your head be bowed, to let your shoulders stoop in the face of such ignorance and disregard for life.
But to do so would give Daesh the victory they crave, giving legitimacy to their doomed plight and allowing them to bask in their arrogance and idiocy for a few weeks more.
When his wife was killed at the Bataclan theatre last year, Antoine Leiris wrote an open letter to the terrorist who committed her murder.
"I don't give you the gift of hating you" he wrote in the Facebook post, which has since been shared thousands of times. "You want me to be afraid...to sacrifice my freedom for security. You have lost".
Leiris refused to give the terrorists what they wanted. The life of his young son, to be spent "being happy and free", would be the greatest insult to the deranged ideology and its' followers.
Of course, questions will be asked of Belgian security forces as to how the attacks could have happened. The lives of those tragically lost will be grieved by their families, and the Belgian nation will mourn the murder of its citizens over the next three days and beyond.
But if you're wondering what we (in our own small way) can do to defeat this enemy, and other terrorists who would lay claim to your freedom, then here it is; continue to live your life.
Spend time with your family and friends. Go about your daily routine, watch a movie at the cinema, go for dinner, see a music gig. Enjoy the hard-earned freedom to do what you want, when you want, with whomever you want, without fear of persecution. Each time you do, it will be another tiny dagger in their poisonous, hateful armor.
Make no mistake; Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. These terrorists no more represent that faith than the Ku Klux Klan represent Christianity. In light of yesterday's events , the number of anti-Muslim attacks will go up, as they always do.
But it is up to us to fight the fear and ignorance that Daesh wants to use in order to turn us against each other. The best thing we can do is to carry on defiantly, to pursue the life we choose in the free society that we have built. It will take more than bombs and bullets to destroy that.