Monday 14 December 2015

Why React To Terrorism With Terror?



UA Flight 175 hits WTC south tower 9-11


Terrorism: the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal.


Donald Trump's recent reaction, that all Muslims should be banned from immigrating to the U.S., political motivations aside, arises from fear. But, while it should come as no surprise when the reaction to terrorism is terror, if we recognize this reaction for what it is, we begin to understand that reacting from a position of fear limits the scope of our reaction to within the general area which the terrorists desired when they committed the act. So their act produced a predictable reaction on our part. And is predictability a sound tactic?

But what if, instead, we reacted to the situation not from the perspective of fear, but from an objective perspective? What would, then, be the best course of action? We might discover that instead of banning Muslims, it would be better to embrace them. Dividing Christians from Muslims (or any other group) will only breed increasing conflict, but uniting with them may breed greater harmony.

In the end, believing that we can control or suppress terrorism may be folly, but what we can control is  our reaction to it.