Not Just Paris
While many of us were enjoying ourselves at the Exeter-Andover games, tragedy was unfolding in Paris. A series of coordinated attacks at several locations, including a soccer stadium, several restaurants and a concert hall, left over 130 people dead and over 300 injured. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the series of attacks. Hours after these attacks, many politicians and pundits have, in bad taste, used this tragedy to further their own political agenda. For example, Ann Coulter tweeted, “Too bad there were no concealed-carry permits...anywhere in Europe...since 1818.” GOP candidates such as Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum quickly stated that we should close our borders to Syrian refugees. Many are using this to justify “boots on the ground” in Syria and Iraq. On social media and even on our own Exeter Confesses page, there are posts promoting Islamophobia.
Regardless of the validity of these opinions, which can be debated extensively, terrorism will always exist under the status quo. If our politicians continue to speak this rhetoric and even implement this rhetoric into policy, terrorism will still exist. Even if we were to destroy ISIS tomorrow, terrorism will still exist. What we are doing currently in the status quo is addressing the symptom, not the cause. Instead we need to make an effort to stop the root causes of terrorism.
So what makes an otherwise normal person into a violent extremist? When a person is poor, uneducated or feels some sort of economic or social injustice and hopelessness for the future, they are more susceptible to radicalization. These people, as a result, will start to harbor poisonous thoughts toward society. A group like ISIS can easily exploit these people. Myriam Benraad, a researcher specializing in Iraq and the Middle East at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, explains, “ISIS promises to avenge all the injuries of colonialism, the Iraq wars; all the injuries of the past. ISIS is a myth, but it’s one that they stick to versus other myth—the French dream, as it were—that they see as unfair and oppressive,”
The same logic applies to homegrown terrorists. Benraad, who wrote her dissertation on the imam who radicalized the Kouachi brothers (these brothers helped carry out the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January), states, “These guys never felt fully French, especially Algerians, or the children of Algerians. To them, the memory of [France’s occupation and war in Algeria] is always here. It’s profound. It’s an injury that the children of immigrants have been living with their whole life, while also facing discrimination.” With xenophobia and islamophobia prominent in Europe, Muslim immigrants are discriminated against and feel excluded from society. This, again, makes them susceptible to radicalization and exploitation to terrorist organizations.
Therefore, if we want to prevent terrorism in the first place, we cannot rely on military intervention alone. We must, at the same time, stabilize the Middle East by working with the local governments to establish better schools, promote entrepreneurship, develop social services and root out corruption. In our own countries, we must make sure that the Muslims living here are given the same social and economic opportunity to integrate them into society. For the Syrian refugees, we need to not only allow them into Western countries, but also to support them with education and equal opportunity and not allow discrimination, xenophobia and islamophobia. Only by these actions can we significantly decrease terrorism in the long run.
At the end of the day, we must ask ourselves if we’re willing to make the financial sacrifices to support these refugees and significantly curb terrorism. Nevertheless, I want to shift the conversation from addressing symptoms to addressing the causes. It’s up to the American people to decide this conversational change. Whatever we do will shape our future, for better or worse.