Dealing With Terrorism

Terrorism, the most senseless violence in the modern age, needs to be dealt with from a multi-pronged approach taking into account spiritual, psychological, and human rights perspectives. This most monstrous, mindless, and vicious type of terrorism that disregards all human rights and canons of decency, and that began in the grandest scale in the most visible form took place on September 11, 2001 in New York. I happened to watch it live on television in a psychiatric ward of a hospital in the USA that I was working on at that time. Terrorism in different forms of viciousness and cruelty raises its ugly head everyday in different parts of the world maiming and killing innumerable persons. Recently terrorism played out in Paris.  Markedly disproportionate publicity, though, is given to the deaths of about two thousand deaths due to terrorism in Nigeria.   

That most names and groups, who perpetrate terrorism in the world, have Islamic names played on my mind. I slowly began to be aware that this play on my mind started forming a  negative image of Islam as a religion. I want to take responsibility for this and apologize for the same. For I know there are right thinking Muslims who condemn strongly the terrorist activities of their very wrong and misguided co-religionists. We definitely need to bring every terrorist to the legal system wherein due justice can be meted out. It is not enough that we treat terrorism through legal system as it could be a symptom underlying a deep problem. The deep problem, to me, is the Palestinian issue. As I wandered in the present Israel for about three weeks I learnt that Israel came into being all of a sudden in 1948 while the then promised Palestinian state has not yet born. We have still in the world a people entitled to nationhood but unjustly deprived of it. This suppressed people has been living in refugee camps in pathetic conditions since 1947.  These refugee camps are a breeding grounds for desperate acts including all forms of terrorism across the world because they do not have hope. Essentially misguided Muslims sympathizing with the Palestinian cause and/or extremely fundamentalist Muslims wanting to conquer the world for their religion are committing these heinous crimes of terrorism. There is no God in their behavior. They are untouched by truth or morality. The right thinking Muslims have a great task on their hand at their own peril to distance from as well as enlighten these terrorists.

Ethically, morally, and spiritually we need to be strongly aware that any group or section of persons suffers injustice or prolonged violations of human rights can become hopeless and act in  on themselves or act out on others. By acting in on themselves, persons become emotionally and mentally sick. By acting out on others, persons commit violent and senseless crimes. Violence has not solved any problems. There will always be depraved persons and violence. But by being fair to all, we can eliminate any just cause for violence and terrorism.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti