Rare.us Politics Editor Jack Hunter: After tragedies like the Paris attacks, we're all thrown into a state of fear. As with 9/11, terrorism shatters our lives in ways that allow our worst nightmares to seem probable or even inevitable.
To stop these horrors from happening, we’d do almost anything.
But there are certain things free, Western liberal societies just don’t do. Chief among them: We don’t demean or target entire religious or ethnic groups for the heinous crimes of others who share their religion or ethnicity.
Yes, we gather intelligence. Yes, we track bad guys. Yes, we take practical steps to strengthen security.
Yes, we should probably even keep a keener eye on visitors and immigrants from countries where Islamic extremism is prevalent (in fact, we should have done this prior to 9/11).
But what we don’t do is punish the vast majority of innocent Muslims for the crimes of others who share the same religion or skin tone.
From an essay on Forward.com by Emory University Professor Deborah Lipstadt: This is Islamic terrorism or, as some call it, jihadism. It does not represent all or even the majority of Muslims. In fact, although no one knows for sure, it probably represents a very tiny proportion of Muslims. Yet there is no question that it grows out of a particular perspective or interpretation of Islam. Those who attribute these attacks to "extremism" or just plain "terrorism," rejecting any connection to Islam, will never be able to address or resolve the problem.
However, if we label all Muslims and their religion as extremist and murderous and ostracize them, we will drive an unknown number into ISIS’s arms. ISIS’s best recruiting tool is convincing Muslims in other countries that they are victims.
Former Georgia House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey: Each such attack is but another battlefield in an asymmetrical worldwide conflict — a Third World War as described today by Pope Francis.
The aggressors are not any certain country, although certain countries are fueling their fight. They claim to fight for Islam but their victims are mostly Muslims. Their targets are not simply one country or another but civilization itself. This is not a war of choice for us but a struggle of necessity. Their goal is total victory. We must continue the fight for their total defeat.
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