Tyranny of the Terrorism

Terrorism has plagued lives of almost all of us and it continues wreck lives of countless others in the fight against it in one way or another;literally nobody is spared.In the light of Osama Bin Laden’s death,we should take a moment out of our jubilance and realize that his death represents merely a symbolic victory because terrorism is not an act by an individual,it has come out to be an elaborate ideology .Moreover  as you read this violence is still being inflicted upon millions in one form or another.

The tyrannous impact or terror is two fold, in an attempt to eliminate or condemn  violence,the fight in turn begets violence mimicking the way infectious viruses spread.So the question springs up, who is the egg or the chicken in this dichotomy of terrorism? We could have lengthy philosophical arguments justifying one party or another based on our tainted beliefs.So you may identify a group as a terrorist ,while they themselves use terms that are more flattering in their situation such as  a ‘separatist, freedom fighter, liberator, revolutionary, patriot, or etc’.So how do we decide? Well its primarily decided by borrowing opinions of ‘the media’ or the ones we deem better positioned at understanding society; rather than forming our own opinions and beliefs.Now is definitely the time to question these polarized beliefs and tainted opinions of ours.

Moreover as we know terrorism in this modern age is innately media-related,the terrorists carry out  extremely ferocious acts to bring attention to their cause and foster an environment of fear and intimidation.Media  feeds the monster by reporting it and bringing the incident to millions of people .But having said that even if,if the Media censors reporting terrorism to discourage it,the terrorists are in turn encouraged to conduct even more extreme acts.

In an effort to fight terrorism some suggest resorting to military action and social profiling of terrorists,which as the history has taught us  ,is not only ineffective and expensive but has rather aggravated the problem.Because in effort to protect our own kind,we have oppressed the ones with whom we disagree ,deprived them and further incited hatred  and inflicted pain out of spite/self interest.As we speak Somalia,Iraq,Libya,Afghanistan,Sudan,Ivory Coast,and Pakistan are gushing rivers of blood.The foreign interference (whether overt or otherwise) in all of these nations is a testament to the fact that you can’t fight terrorism by force,as it begets a feeling of insecurity and more and more people turn to violence in a bid to protect their land from ‘intruders’.These foreign interventions are mainly to usurp a territory ,to dominate a territory’s  resources , for imposition of a particular form of government, in opposition to a ruling government or occupying army and sometimes just  fanatical greed.However sovereignty  and dignity of indigenous population should be respected under every circumstance there are no valid excuses.

In conclusion I would stress that there should be no denying the fact that precious lives are being lost, people no matter which ideological background they belong to are humans  that deserve to be treated with respect and compassion.There is increased need of dialogue and understanding in this heinously divided and polarized society. We have to break the walls and transcend ‘the boundaries’ ever more so, because we need to empathize with sufferers without any exceptions.

P.S. I wrote a post in 2009  titled ‘Violence and threat of Violence’ which addresses similar issues