We Could Stop Terrorism

By Gabriella Orta on September 14, 2017

Image via Freerange

“Terrorism will persist as long as it has success,” my mom told me once.

All of us know that fighting terrorism in our world is almost an impossible task. There is always something terrible happening on this planet and there is no way for us to stop it. People operate aggressively when they see themselves in harsh situations. That is what we do even though sometimes we think we are all civilized and stuff.

When we think about terrorism we actually picture the acts of terror in our minds; the actual event. We think about the Holocaust, the 9/11 attacks, the Orlando shooting at The Pulse nightclub, the attack at La Rambla in Barcelona, the constant terrorist incidents in Syria, etc. We remember how unfortunate and sad those days of terror were to our society.

Perhaps terrorists believe that by causing panic they can push people to create changes in a community, by inducing fear. They have power over others just because they are willing to kill them if it is necessary.

Terrorism is not going to change by itself. We are the ones responsible for that mission. A rational person — terrorist or not — is in control of their actions. After researching this subject, I have come to the conclusion that terrorism is something that can be fought. It is just a matter of personal attitude and morality.

What causes terrorism?

A lot of reasons have been proposed to find out the causes of terrorism: religion, social and economic changes, politics. All of them are simply wrong! The only cause of terrorism is people; we hold on to religion, social changes, political powers, and a bunch of other things to feel like we have enough material to support the idea to commit an act of violence. Is it hard for some people to understand the meaning of morality?

Is terrorism justified?

I hope the answer is no. A terrorist could achieve his main purposes by inducing fear and calling the attention of the media. But does it guarantee the creation of beneficial changes to his country, his religion, or himself? I do not think so.

To contrast my point, I found an article called Is Terrorism Ever Justifiedby Bridget Lennon. She states that taking a life for a life is warranted. In other words, she is saying that killing innocent people is fine simply because other innocent people were killed. What a nice way to think!

How to stop terrorism?

Now, according to an article called A Violent War Against Terrorism Is Doomed to Fail, from The Philadelphia Inquirer Newspaper and written by Stuart Diamond, violence is only going to create more violence. He says that we always see terrorists as irrational and evil people without any notion of the value of life and because they do not appreciate their lives, then we think the right thing to do is to kill them all.

Instead of paying with the same coin, we should use various means for voicing our disapproval. We can vote, form foundations and groups, make peaceful protests and even join activist groups in order to create changes and protect human rights. This is something even terrorists can implement to achieve their goals. I understand the changes are not going to be immediate for the terrorist side, but it is worth a try and it is the right thing to do. I wish they could understand that.

We are constantly reminded that terrorism causes pain and agony on people all over the world. This was the main reason for the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy to adopt in 2006 the resolution 60/288 on the General Assembly Resolutions, which states that terrorism constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security and it is urgent to take action to prevent and combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

This resolution is the first one to be agreed on by all the members of the United Nations. However, we have not seen changes. Every member state of the United Nations agreed with this resolution and nothing is happening. Why exactly is that? Dealing effectively with terrorists requires wealthy nations to come into heartfelt dialogue with true representatives of those who are dispossessed and impoverished.

The approach that can stop terrorism from multiplying lies in developing a long-term plan supported and financed by all nations of the world. This is one of the tasks the governments from wealthy nations with the support of all countries in the world should be implementing to prevent terrorism, but I guess money is all they can think of.

Conclusion

People are the cause of terrorism in the world. We blindfold ourselves with a lot of “reasons” to commit acts of violence. Those reasons do not give us, under any circumstance, a justification to produce intentional harm to others.

There are a lot of ways to fight for the things you want to change in society and terrorists could use the same methods to achieve their goals without the need of violence.

By changing our actions we can create a new horizon of hope, replacing death and destruction with life and creation. Let’s end terrorism and start a revolution.

The Dalai Lama once said, “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”

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